


Of Hearts and Shells: 50 Shades of Green

by Ravenshell



Series: Of Hearts and Shells [2]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Action & Romance, Apritello, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, little bit of Leorai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2015-02-22
Packaged: 2018-03-14 14:32:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 74,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3414236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenshell/pseuds/Ravenshell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When April is transformed into a turtle, it's Donnie's dream come true!  But is something wrong with her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You Are Now Entering the Friend Zone

Of Hearts and Shells : 50 Shades of Green

 

The Turtle lives 'twixt plated decks  
Which practically obscure its sex.  
I think it clever of the turtle  
In such a fix to be so fertile.  
 _-Ogden Nash_

A nymphomaniac is someone who has more sex than you do.  
 _\- Alfred Kinsey_

 

Chapter 1 - You are Now Entering the Friend Zone

 

“You know this isn’t going to work out, right?”

Donatello looked up at her, his mouth full of sandwich, which he suddenly had remarkable trouble swallowing. At his non-response, April continued.

“Us… This.” She took his arm from around her shoulders.

“I thought you liked the picnics,” he said, finally getting the bite to go down.

“The picnics are fine. And I like spending time with you, but…” Her voice was full of melancholy, echoing off the walls of the subway tunnel they’d chosen to have lunch in. “… that’s all it can ever be. It’s like we’re kidding ourselves if we keep going… thinking we can be in love, have a normal relationship…”

“’Normal relationship,’ humph.” He had to agree with her there; it was anything but normal… one human girl, one mutant turtle. That they were together at all was completely insane.

“Exactly.”

“But I do lo—“

“Don’t! … Donnie, just… don’t.” She sighed and pushed herself away from him and up to her feet on the deserted platform. “It doesn’t matter if we have feelings for each other… they’re just leading us down a dead-end street… Don’t you see?”

Of course he could. He knew, knew from the start, that he’d been deluding himself. He had even tried to tell himself that it was just a crush, that he would get over it—that he needed to get over it—but, that was when April started returning his affections. The overwhelming joy pushed all doubts aside, because nothing else mattered more at that point. Now, though… the fall was that much higher.

“Yeah,” he said, a bit dourly, “I understand.” And he did understand. Understood completely. She craved the normal life she had had; one where she could go out with friends, in the middle of the day, no less… to walk down the street without wondering where they were watching her from, or smelling like the sewers… She wanted to get married one day, and have children. Normal children. Not mutant children.

Of course, now that she knew what was out there, knew what monsters lurked in the darkness, good or evil, life would never be completely normal for her ever again. The whole alien invasion and mutant mess had seen to that. You couldn’t unsee it, especially when you were so involved in it all.  
His heart burned in his chest, aching with the loss. It wanted to beg her to stay, to tell her not to do this… but, no. Donatello steeled himself. It was a hard letdown, but she was right… if not now, when? Some other time down the road? No sense in dragging it out…

He couldn’t be angry about it… he still loved her too much, and he knew her intentions were good. His love for her would remain, he was sure, unfulfilled though it was. And he knew the love she felt for him wouldn’t entirely leave her either. The love would continue, even though the relationship could not. And since he loved her, and wanted the best for her, the best thing he could do was to let her go.

But oh, god, it ached…

He forced down the lump in his throat and tossed the remains of his sandwich onto the tracks, then stood to join her. “We’ll still be friends, though, won’t we?” he asked hesitantly.

She sniffed deeply. He thought he saw her wipe a sleeve over her eyes as she stooped to pick up their basket. “Of course we will,” she said with an overt attempt to be cheerful. “Come on.” She grabbed him by the hand. He habitually curled his three large fingers around it, but this time he especially noted the disparity in size. “Wanna whack each other with sticks when we get back?” she asked mischievously.

He brightened a little at this. “You’re on!” Some sparring would be a welcome distraction, not to mention a good outlet of aggression. “And I’m gonna beat you this time too!”

“No you’re not!” April laughed back. He loved her laugh. The thought stung him again as he realized it. He pushed it away. This was how things were going to have to be.

“I might!” he replied defensively, and this time they laughed together.

 

The match between them was getting heated. Their strikes against each other came at a furious pace. Donatello rolled left to avoid an overhead blow from April’s rattan training staff. The impact on the floor cracked like a gunshot. Don took a swipe at her legs to trip her, but she jumped over his bo and aimed another swift blow at his side. He had time to dodge, and her swing, while it connected with his shell, didn’t weaken his stance. He went into an overhead spin, aiming a downward jab at her. She leapt backward, evading in that intuitive way of hers, and came back at him with a spinning swing from the side. He parried and, after a tense moment, forced her back.

In the half a year that she had been training with Splinter, she had learned much. She was a quick study, and could read many of her opponents’ attacks before they struck. She was an absolute ace with her tessen, but in the course of their relationship, Donnie had begun training her with the staff as well, so that they could spar on even footing. Master Splinter had approved: “Teaching another provides oneself a greater mastery of one’s own knowledge.” It had been a fun activity that he and April could share, and he loved that he could share his expertise with her… but… Now she was almost outpacing his skills. She adapted quickly, anticipated many of his moves, and extemporized techniques in ways that left him floored… literally, likely as not. About the only advantages he still had over her were the speed of his attacks and superior strength. And, well, his shell.

She wasn’t holding back today; maybe she felt she had no more obligation to. He found himself having to be rougher with her just to match her ferocity. The intensity of the match had even drawn Leo and Raph’s attention away from their own match to watch them go at it. They joined Michelangelo, who, partnerless for the moment, was sitting on the sidelines with a bowl of popcorn.

Their staves clacked together as they matched blows. Back, spin, forward; back, spin, forward. The tempo of their swings at each other increased to a point where Donnie felt that she was getting ahead of him, and rolled back, giving himself a chance to strike toward her feet and—Did she just jump that before he’d even gotten the bo into the beginning of its arc??

Stunned, he didn’t recover quick enough, and gave April the opportunity to land a stab to his fore-plating, right at the heart. It threw him back, but he regained his feet and came at her with a blocking spin. He struck; she parried, eye to eye with him, until he made an attempt to disarm her by getting his bo under hers. She flipped to the left. He followed the movement, and the two of them went cartwheeling around the practice area in a near-perfect circle. They wheeled around at such speed that their audience had to scramble out of the way, trailing alarmed shouts and kernels of popcorn.

She eventually broke away from him, going into a blazingly fast side spin. He knew this. He had this. She ran toward him. All he had to do was block forward and— The end of her staff hit the floor a yard in front of him and she… pole-vaulted?! Where had she learned that move?! he wondered. He spun his bo behind him, blocking her next swing instinctively with a backward thrust. He felt the end impact flesh and heard an “Oh!” from April.

Concerned, he dropped his guard and turned to face her. “Are you all r—OOF!” The rattan staff rammed into his cheek. He reeled, seeing stars, and had no time to recover before she swept his feet out from under him with her next maneuver. He landed on his back. Even with a shell, the fall knocked the wind out of him. It was over. April gave him a prim bow, then without meeting his eyes or saying a word, left.

“Whoa,” Leonardo finally managed.

“Yeah, that was definitely more intense than usual,” Raphael nodded, as Donnie, coughing, slowly rose back to his knees. “She really looked like she was going in for the kill there.”

Mikey’s eyes suddenly went wide. “You guys broke up, didn’t you?!” The others blinked at him. Mikey was not known for being astute.

Donnie sighed and nodded in confirmation. “Yeah.”

Mike tsked. “I knew it!”

Leo threw him a skeptical look. “You. Knew it.” Raph gave him a matching stare.

“You guys didn’t see that?” Mikey looked frustrated. “Look… normally when they spar, it’s like a dance, like they both want to be there with each other. This time, Donnie wanted to dance, and April was in it for an all-out brawl!” He shook his head. “Dude didn’t stand a chance…”

Raph turned to Leo. “How is he seeing this?”

“I dunno,” he replied. “Maybe we should stop letting him sit on the sidelines all the time…”

“Donnie, what the hell did you say to her?” Raph accused.

“I… what? Nothing! She was the one that wanted to break it off! And she was fine and happy with it half an hour ago…”

“Dude,” Mikey said soberly, “she’s really hurting.”

Raph waved his arms at Mike. “How does he keep doing tha— Ya know what? I don’t even care. I’m out of this conversation.” Leo rolled his eyes as their brother stormed off.

Donnie finally joined them, back on his feet. “But what’s with the aggression? She was fine with it—she broke up with me!”

“That’s what’s tearing her up, man! This is probably the hardest thing she’s ever had to do! Think about it… she’s independent, and strong, and kind,” Mikey listed, “and she wouldn’t want to hurt you… she loves you! Did she cry?”

Donnie thought back. “A little. She tried to hide it.”

“Uh huh, mm-hmm,” Mikey nodded, crossing his arms.

“Soooo… what did she leave you for?” Leo asked.

Don looked at his feet. “Oh, ya know… incompatibility issues.”

“Um, wut?” Mikey said, encountering an unfamiliar word.

“It’s because I’m a turtle,” Donnie explained for him.

“Oh, man… That’s rough.”

Don nodded. “And, you know, she’s right… she’s completely justified in breaking it off, because if things went any further, there would just be that much more heartbreak… but…” He huffed, and continued mostly to himself, “… but, what am I ever gonna do without her?”


	2. Thunderstruck

  

Chapter 2: Thunderstruck

 

Two weeks later, and all was back to normal... if being outside of a relationship was normal. April seemed to have worked out her aggression toward Donatello, but her demeanor toward him was still noticeably cooler than it had been previously; she was distant toward him, ruthless in their duels, and even with the others, she seemed despondent. So much for the “still be friends” arrangement, but he let it be.

Donnie supposed that this was par for the course when it came to breakups... Things just weren't going to go back to the way they had been before their relationship.

The orb on the table flashed to life, alien characters tracing their way across its surface. Leonardo was the first to notice it, though April sensed its activation as well and peeked in from the other room. "Looks like the Kraang are on the move again," Leo assessed, though had to call his brother in to decrypt the message. He walked purposefully toward the Shellraiser and rapped twice on its hull. Donnie slid out from beneath the massive metal beast and raised his welding shield. He looked aggravated at being disturbed, but his annoyance vanished when he saw that it was Leonardo, and Leo didn't have a tendency to bother him for no reason. "Kraang encryption. We need you on the computer."

Donnie nodded as he shed his welding gear. "I should just set it up to automatically decrypt things so I'm not the only one able to read them..." he mulled as he joined April and Leo. With a few taps to his keyboard, the display of the Kraang plans showed on the monitor. "Looks like they're up to something in Central Park... They're trying to terraform a wide section of it, and probably everything and every _one_ in it with mutagen!"

April gave the screen a skeptical scowl. "That sounds like a lame plan... What would that get them?"

"A lot of people out in the clear, no buildings nearby, especially this time of the day, when everyone's out of school or off work..." Leo mused aloud.

"And if they're successful, a whole lot of new, very disoriented mutants to take away and experiment on." Don added on the tail of his thought.

"Then why not the whole park?" April asked, circling the map on the screen with a finger. "Why just this block here?"

"Popularity?" suggested Leo.

"Biodiversity? They do use a lot of exotic plants in the gardens..." Donnie likewise speculated.

"Whatever it is, it's not really important. Guys, gear up. We're going topside to check things out." He turned to Donnie. "Is the Shellraiser ready to go?"

Don rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, I just get under there and weld during the most sweltering days of the year because I like seeing the pretty sparks."

"How long ‘til it's done?"

"Couple days, maybe a week. It's not going on this mission in any ca—" Donnie realized that his brother was giving him puppy eyes. "You really wanted to drive it again, didn't you?" Leo nodded, puppy-eyed gaze continuing. Donnie sighed, then glared. "You know, one of these days, I'm gonna teach you some auto-repair skills so you can fix all the damage you and Raph do to this thing on your own." To no one, he muttered, "WHY am I the only useful one around here??" He looked to April for a second, but she refused to meet his eyes. Deliberately.

Raph slammed the pinball machine hard enough to make the tilt lights flash as he lost his ball, and Michelangelo, who had been watching, gave a mocking laugh. With the game over, the two of them joined Leo for the mission briefing. "What's the deal, Leo?" Raph called.

"We're gonna play your favorite game, Raph... Krack-a-Krang."

"Oh, is it my birthday already??" He looked thrilled.

Mikey looked panicked. "It's Raph's birthday and no one told me?!"

Donnie gave him a sidelong glance. "We all have the same birthday, genius.."

Michelangelo went from distraught to outright upset. "It's MY birthday and you guys didn't get me anything???" he whimpered, tearing up.

Leo huffed. "Mikey, our birthdays were two months ago. Now listen... Donnie and Raph, you approach from the north, while Mikey and April and I will come in from the west side here. Keep out of sight, and report in on the T-phones when you have visual. Got it?" Seeing assenting nods all around, he declared, "Let's roll out." He looked back to the Shellraiser, still up on jacks. “Or… we take the subway...”

 

It crossed Donatello's mind that Leo had purposely separated him from April. He resented it a little, but had to admit, given their breakup, that it was a wise move. Don had to concede that his prior antics to attract her attention were maybe a little too over the top... but that was before. There wasn't any point in trying to win her back now. Not when a mutant-human relationship was such an obvious dead-end. Still... it had been so long since he'd seen her smile, and he missed the kind warmth that shone forth from her when she did, not only toward himself, but toward everyone. It was like the soul had gone out of her. He'd do anything to see her happy again... Letting her go, that was supposed to be a step in that direction, wasn't it? Destroying the happiness they'd had was supposed to make things better for her, to give her her freedom. It's what she had wanted... so why was she so miserable?

A sudden sharp jab in his side brought him out of his reverie. Raphael withdrew his sai. "Hey, boy genius, you coming, or what?"

Don realized he'd been staring into space for several minutes. Right. THIS was why Leo split them up like this, to keep his focus off April. _Smart move, Leo._

The two of them moved in on their marks, under the cover of a decorative hedge. Not seeing them, a black-suited Kraang walked past their position, carrying a length of metal. The oppressive heat did not seem to bother it at all, while the two turtles sweltered in the humidity. It wasn't going to hold out for long, though, judging by the massive banks of black clouds gathering nearby.

Donatello spoke into his phone. "We have visual on the Kraang. They appear to be constructing a round metal platform of some kind with a central pillar... Looks more like human technology than Kraang tech..."

"Copy that," Leo's voice replied. "No visual from here on the platform, but we are seeing some Kraang movement. They're moving in a lot of pieces of metal and... looks like red and yellow fabric, and..." The line went silent for a moment. "Was that a goat??"

Raphael snickered and poked Donnie for his attention. A Kraang walked past them carrying a chicken. They followed it along the hedgerow, finally spotting its destination: a large pen near the metal structure. The droid they had been following entered it and set down the chicken. Another android present in the pen addressed the new arrival. "Kraang has decided that Kraang does not like the creature known as 'a goat.' It has eaten Kraang's favorite external covering." The other automaton bleeped and examined the jacket of the first. It was, indeed, quite chewed-looking.

"What, are they making a petting zoo?" Raph derided, but that did seem to be the case, as a calf, a goose, a pair of pigs, more goats, and a miniature horse arrived… and, because the Kraang seemed to have a poor grasp of what belonged in a petting zoo, an ostrich, a huge iguana, and a camel.

"I really do not believe what I'm seeing..." Donnie said aloud.

For good measure, one of the Kraang droids added a container labeled "Hand Sanitizer" to a post of the petting zoo, and opening the top, poured in the contents of a flask of mutagen.

Disgust graced Raph's featured. "That is just deranged..."

April's voice came on the line. "Guys, I think they're making a carousel. They just passed here with a bunch of horses..."

Leo chimed in again. "I thought they were supposed to be trying to terraform this place... now they're building amusement rides?"

"Only seeing the carousel and petting zoo here," Donnie replied. " Still..."

With easily thirty Kraang on site now, the rest of the carousel structure was erected in minutes, yellow and red awning, flagging, lights, music and all. But, as a finishing touch, so to seem, several Kraang attached containers of mutagen along the outer rigging of the carousel's tent.

"We've moved up, visual on carousel," Leo said. "Are you guys seeing this?"

"Confirmed, mutagen on the outer struts, but why there?? Unless..."

One of the Kraang waved an arm. "The project which is here is complete, and is ready for the testing. Kraang, bring in the object which is for the testing of the project." Another of the androids brought forth what could only be a large burlap sack of potatoes and placed it on the saddle of one of the brightly painted ponies. When his associate cleared the platform, the announcing Kraang nodded, and another automaton hit a switch. The carousel merrily turned in a circle for several seconds, then suddenly sped to a blur. The bag of potatoes flew from the whirling cylinder and smacked against the back fence of the petting zoo. The goats and pigs squealed as they scurried out of its way, then quickly returned to gnaw on the mashed contents of the sack. The iguana looked displeased as it was spattered with potato.

Mikey's gasp suddenly came over the line. "They're gonna use it like a center-fudge!"

Donnatello blinked. How Mikey had grasped the concept of a centrifuge but still couldn't get the name right was beyond him, but he was spot-on, and now Donnie could see the workings. "It's designed to throw the occupants into the animal pen and gardens while spraying mutagen over them, AND the ground, and that's what they're planning to use to terraform it!"

"Kids!" April suddenly raged. "They're planning on using little kids for this! Why those dirty, rotten... ugh!"

"Well, that kind of makes sense too... if you want mutants to test on, or be used as an army, you'd want the little ones that can't fight back and could be trained to your cause, right?"

Raph swiped the phone from Donnie. "You scare me sometimes, Leo."

"He's right, though," Don said, taking his phone back. "According to Kurtzman, the Kraang have been screwing with this planet for centuries... they can certainly work for long-term goals..."

"Well, let's make 'em a little longer-term, then!" Raph made to get up. Donnie pulled him down again.

"Wait for Leo to signal us!"

Thunder boomed loudly, and rain began spattering down on them. One of the droids turned to another. "Kraang said that there would be many humans in this place at the time that is now. Kraang did not check the report of the weather on the channel known as ‘six.’ Kraang is an idiot."

Raph didn’t have to wait long for Leo to give the go-ahead. “Eight canisters… Move in. Stealth tactics, for as long as we can stay unnoticed.”

“Copy, moving in,” Donnie replied, then turned to find that Raph had already disappeared somewhere down the hedgerow.

 

In the dusk of the evening and the rain, the shapes of the turtles were virtually invisible in the high ornamental bushes, and the calliope music from the carousel covered the sound of their movement, but as it stood in the clear, stealth meant careful timing. As one Kraang passed, Leonardo darted forward and leapt onto the canopy. He made a grab for the canister nearest him and… it didn’t budge. He lay flat against the strut, for a bit more concealment, but as the platform turned, chances were high that he’d be seen. A quick glance showed that each container was securely screwed down in four places. He sighed in annoyance. “Great.”

A slight wobble indicated another turtle landing on the strutwork. Leo glanced back. Raph too, it seemed, had found that the canisters didn’t easily come off. Leo expected Raph, being Mr. Property Damage himself, to jab a sai through the pipe and be done with it despite Leo’s plan, but instead, his brother had taken out a shuriken and was using it as a screwdriver to loosen the screws. Leo had to admit, that was brilliant, but the process was taking way too long… they were bound to be—

“The ones known as the Turtles are in the place that is here! All Kraang, attack!”

—spotted. _Shit._ “Raph! Grab ‘n’ go!” Leo hollered as pink bolts of energy fired past them.

“ ’at’s what I was waitin’ for!” Raph put the shuriken between his teeth, pulled his sai out of his belt and stabbed both at the pipe. To Raph’s shock, neither point penetrated the metal. “Huh?” He aimed a single sai at the strut to force through with both hands, and ground his teeth when it turned his strike. “No go, Leo! Too solid! Gonna have to do it the hard way, if you guys can give me some cover…”

Michelangelo and Donatello leapt into the fray, drawing fire from their brothers on the carousel. Though she remained unseen in the bushes, now and then April’s tessen would flash across the field, beheading or incapacitating a droid where she could.

Leo dropped from the red and yellow awning, and rolled forward, taking up position next to Donnie. “Hi!” he said brightly, as if joining a game.

“Oh, hey,” Donnie replied casually, landing a kick to the suited Kraang he was fighting. Leo caught it and slashed it apart as it fell into his range.

“D’you happen to have a screwdriver with you?”

“As always. Standard or Phillip’s head?” Both of them rolled to the side to avoid a barrage of weapon-fire.

Leo looked a bit ashamed. “Iiiiiii honestly don’t know the difference. Just trade out and go help Raph unscrew the mutagen.” He threw one of his katanas, impaling a nearby enemy droid in the head.

“You got it.” Donatello flipped backward to allow Leo to take his place in combat.

Raphael, meanwhile, had managed to get the first container free. “April, north side!” he called.

After a moment, she emerged through the hedge. “I’m here!”

Raph pitched her the mutagen. “We need you to catch these as we get them loose and hide them back in the bushes for later.” April nodded and thrashed back through the hedge, returning a few moments later with her arms free.

Working with an actual screwdriver, Don got the next container free much faster than Raph had managed with his shuriken. “Two free,” he announced as he tossed it into April’s waiting arms. Raph seemed to be taking it as a challenge, trying to increase his pace. The rain began beating down on them in earnest as there was a flash, and thunder crashed dangerously close.

_High metal structure in the middle of a field, with nothing taller around, in the middle of a thunderstorm…,_ Donnie thought. _And here we are, spinning around on top of it. Brilliant._

He pulled another flask away from the rigging. “Three!” he called as he passed it down.

“Four!” Raph yelled competitively as he also got one loose, causing April to go ”Whoaa!” as she shuffled the vial already in her arms to catch the next.

Donatello happened to look up as he was unscrewing the next canister and swore. “Leo! Mikey! We’ve got about fifty more Kraang robots inbound!”

“Awh!” Raph groaned at the news, his disappointment clear.

Donnie nodded to the fray below. “Go on, I’ve got this,” he told him.

Raph gave him a stubborn look, then took out a sai and jammed it under the container he was working on, breaking the remaining two screws and prying it free. “Five!” he shouted with a grin, passed the canister to April, then dropped off the canopy and barreled into the battle like a kid into a candy factory.

Three to go. But as April caught the sixth container, the Kraang went on alert. She’d been spotted. “The one known as April O’Neil is in the place that is here! Mission objective prime in effect: Capture the one known as April O’Neil!”

April’s face fell. “Uh-oh!” she said nervously, but regained her wits, and shouted, “Yeah, it’s me! You want me, Kraang?? Come and get me!” With that, she vaulted over the hedge Donnie and Raph had been hiding behind earlier and disappeared into the brush. To a one, the Kraang pursued her, shooting their way through the bushes. It crossed Donnie’s mind to call out after her, but she could handle herself, and she must have had a plan. Instead he kept his mind on the mission, freeing the seventh and eighth containers, carrying them himself as he jumped clear of the carousel.

“What’s she doing?” Raph queried incredulously. Leo answered him with a shrug, katanas dangling at his sides.

Donatello found the spot where April had stashed the rest of the mutagen and added the two canisters to the pile, then rejoined the others.

Suddenly April came pelting down the path from the south, feet splashing in the thin mud, can of mutagen still in her hands, swarms of Kraang fast on her heels… she’d run them in a circle. No, not a circle… a spiral, with herself at its center! She skidded to a halt on her heels, closed her eyes, balled her fists, concentrating. As the first Kraang began laying their hands on her, she let out a roar and a flash of power that deadened many of the Kraang in her blast-radius, but unfortunately, not all of them. She looked panicked as she ran back toward the turtles. “That didn’t go as well as I expected!” she mentioned as she ran past.

While this gave the guys ample targets to attack from the flanks of the mass, a dozen droids were quickly on April’s tail. Out of options, she leapt onto the merrily turning carousel and swung herself up onto its framework of struts. Donnie shouted for her to get down, but went unheard in the melee. A few of the Kraang managed to find handholds and clambered their way after her.

She could feel her hair starting to stand on end, despite the rain, and knew that that was a very bad sign. In an all but instinctive move, she threw the mutagen high into the air at the robot behind her. “Catch!” she yelled, and jumped away, letting the canopy canvas break her fall as a bolt of lightning sizzled down from the heavens, striking canister, Kraang, and carousel with a simultaneous ear-splitting kaboom.

The Kraang touching the carousel shorted out spectacularly, as did the carousel itself, music and lights coming to a sparkingly explosive halt. The moment the lightning hit it, the mutagen changed to the glowingly hot pink-white of the bolt itself. The container fell, clanking off the hull of the downed droid that had been about to grab April, then off two struts at the carousel’s peak. Bouncing off the canvas, it flipped end over end toward the battle, until it was pierced by one of the errant energy beams assailing the air, nearly right above where April was recovering her footing.

The capsule of mutagen spun and shattered, the glowing ooze spattering outward in a spiral like a firework. Donnie saw it nearly too late. "April!" he screamed, reaching out for her. She was an impossibly far distance from him. Leonardo was nearest her, and reacted with blazing speed to shove her out of the way... almost. He managed to bodily throw her back, dropping one of his katanas to push her away with a palm to her sternum. Milliseconds later, though the shove had sent her on a backward trajectory, globs of mutagen spattered across her cheek, neck, collarbones and the hand she threw up to shield herself. "APRIL!!" Don screamed again in panic as she disappeared into the shadow of the hedges. He heard her scream in agony as the mutagen took effect, wracking her body. Through the thick veil of rain, he could see her writhing.

He would have run to her right then, but there were still enemies to be taken care of. He had to block a Kraang droid that was suddenly right on top of him in the instant he had taken his eyes off the fight to watch her.   Enraged at his helplessness to save her, he roared at the robot, throwing it backward off his bo, then spinning it and squeezing to reveal the blade at the end. He thrust it through the droid's eye socket, and with a twisting motion, pulled the head free, then jammed it through the brain-like alien held in the thing's torso. The Kraang made an oddly liquid gurgle, unlike the one the brain creatures usually did as they escaped. A strangely purple liquid oozed out around Donatello's blade as its tentacles went limp. It occurred to him as he pulled it out, a robot head and brain shish-kebab on the end of his staff, that none of them had ever killed one of the Kraang brain things, for as many of them as they had fought. In fact, this was the first being that he had actually killed. The thought made him a bit ill, but he kept his mind on the battle at hand.

Another one approached him, weapon blazing. Donnie bellowed at it, whirling his naginata around to bear, impaled head and brain still held fast on the blade. The Kraang brain in the robot blanched. Even the emotionless robotic face seemed shocked at what was suddenly being wielded at it.   Horrified, it made an abrupt about-face and ran for its life, only to receive a sai through the head for its effort. The brain wasted no time detaching itself and scuttling away with a traumatized look on its... brain.

On all sides of him, his brothers were mopping up the last of their attackers. Donnie retracted the spear-tip on his bo, its two trophies falling to the ground. He had only one thought on his mind, and though he turned to where she had landed, he found himself rooted to the spot. Before he could mouth her name, he heard Raphael call, "April!" from his right, echoed on his left by Mikey, and Don realized that he wasn't the only one concerned about her… though he could easily beat all of them out for how much.

It would have been a perfectly poetic moment for the rain to ease off, but rain actually has a horrible sense of poetic timing. The sun, however, took its cue to dip down below the cloud layer as it began to set, turning each droplet into a flashing diamond.

There was movement from the hedge where April had landed. Leo stepped forward, unsure what to expect. "April?" he called tentatively.

"Leo," she answered, agonizingly grim, "What am I?", but it was definitely the same sweet voice they knew her to have.

The approaching shadow of a figure was definitely not that of a human, and it moved as if it was not steady on its unfamiliar feet. Leonardo gulped, and replied as tactfully as he could, "You are a wonderful and loving person, whom we all care for very much—"

"Dammit, Leo, don't jerk me around! Just tell me what I turned into!" she snapped, emerging into the light.   She had her eyes clenched shut, refusing to look at herself. Donnie's jaw dropped like a cast-iron pan. He stared.

Leo's jaw worked up and down, unable to answer, and not sure if he should. Behind him, Mikey, beaming, emitted an awestruck, "Oh, _wow_..."

Raph smirked. "I think Donnie ought to field this one," he announced. "Donnie?" Donatello could only keep staring. Raph gave him a sidelong glare, then a jab with his sai. "Yo, Donnie!"

"You're a t—" he started, and his voice died. She was a vision, raindrops sparkling around her... He had trouble focusing on any one detail, from the tatters of what remained of her yellow shirt, to the inexplicably feminine peanut-shaped shell, to the fact that despite being reptilian, her red hair still remained, and still in its ponytail. She opened her eyes to look directly into his, still awaiting a full answer. His voice recovered, but just barely. "You're a turtle..."

She let out a sobbing breath that was partly mournful but mostly relief as she fell into his arms. Still stunned, he pulled her to him, patting her shell, noting that the hourglass shape of it accommodated his arms perfectly to hold her. "It's all right... I'll look after you..."

Leo looked up as sirens started in the background and only seemed to draw closer. "Let's grab the mutagen and get underground," he said; an order, but a subdued one.

Donnie kept an arm around April as they walked, her unsteady on strangely-shaped new feet, but stooped to retrieve the remains of the busted canister at the base of the carousel. The metal components of the lid had fused together, but the flask, though ending in a jagged, broken edge, still held a goodly amount of the pinkish-white liquid. A bit of rain had gathered on top of the mutagen, but thankfully, wasn’t dense enough to mix with it. Don let out a breath of relief. He would need the sample to figure out a retro-mutagen. Both of them stared at it for a moment. She leaned against him, sobbed against his shoulder, and they began walking awkwardly through the burnt hole the Kraang had cut through the shrubbery to a grating outside of the park.

 

"Splinter's gonna shit bricks," Raph noted as the five of them got back to the lair.

Mikey giggled. "Aw, I can't wait to see the look on his face!"

"Guys, do you mind?" Don scolded, indicating April, who leaned gently against him as they walked.

"Don't mind at all," Raph snickered in retort.

"Knock it off, you two," Leo reprimanded. "This is serious. April's been mutated, she's still in shock, and you guys are making light of it!" Mike and Raph sobered a little.

"Sorry, April," Mikey capitulated.

The newly-turtle April replied with a sniffle. "It's all right, guys... " She hadn't completely stopped crying, but once again, was making a valiant effort to be strong given the circumstances. Donnie had to love her for her strength of will. He stroked her bangs out of her eyes.

Leonardo nudged Raph. "Go wake Master Splinter."

Raph gave him a look. "Why me?"

"Because I said so!"

Grudgingly, Raphael slid back the rice paper divider to Splinter's sanctum.

"And because you deserve to get hit the most..." Leo added softly enough that only Donnie and April heard him, as Raph's sudden "Ow!" sounded from the next room.

Moments later, Raph reemerged, sensei following. "It really is something you should see for yourself," Raph said, by way of explanation. "She's... um... well... got a new look." He made a wide gesture to the unfamiliar turtle on Donnie's arm.

"Master Splinter...?" April began, failing to find words.

Splinter gave her a stolid but kind look. "Ah, April. I see you've done something new with your hair," he said with a slight smile. “Raphael always does have an eye for these things."

April looked taken aback at his reaction, though not as much as Raphael, who stood rigidly at Splinter's side. "Uh, yes! That was totally the thing I wanted to show you, Master." He looked at the others with pleading eyes.

Mikey appeared at his side, pointing two fingers at him. "Bricks shat, dude."

Splinter circled April, giving her appraising glances, as Donatello backed off to let her stand on her own. "I especially like this new shell you've added under it. Quite flattering."

April blushed. "Master, are... are you really okay with this?"

The robed rat gave her another kind look, and a sigh. "Things are as they are. I do not wish that this had occurred, nor do you, I would guess, but it is not I who must adjust to such change. I believe it is one you are strong enough to overcome, as you show such perseverance. But I do hope it is a temporary state." He turned toward Donatello. "I have all faith that you will come up with a solution for her, my son. In time," he added with a knowing wink.

Mikey sidled his way up to Don. "I've got the perfect name for April!"

Don glared at him. "April already _has_ a name. APRIL."

"Aprurtle!"

"No."

"No wait--TurtApril!"

"NO."

"Tur-pril!"

"MIKEY!"

Mikey ignored him, grinning ear to ear. "Hey, April, which do you like better?"

April looked up at him as Splinter retreated back to his privacy. "Uhh..."

Donnie grabbed his brother and muffled him. "That's it... you're done..." With that, he half carried, half dragged Mikey out of the room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did it piss anyone else off when April didn't mutate in "The Lonely Mutation of Baxter Stockman" ? My God, that episode was a tease! That's pretty much what inspired this fic... well, that and the desire to write some Apritello smut...
> 
> Speaking of, things are gonna start getting pretty hot and heavy next chapter...


	3. Taking Hold

 

Chapter 3 - Taking Hold

 

Needing some privacy after the whole event, Donnie found himself sitting on an empty subway platform outside the lair. He felt... well, conflicted was the best word for it. He felt like he'd failed to protect April from getting mutated, but excited at the prospect that now they had a chance to be together... but then, would she go for it? Surely, she just wanted to go back to being human as soon as possible... which of the recent mutations wouldn't?   He had managed to make retro-mutagen that cured Kirby O'Neil, but it had taken him months and a lot of mutagen... normal mutagen, if you could call it that, mutagen that April was immune to, thanks to her Kraang blood. This mutagen had altered when the lightning made contact with it—a _mutant mutagen_. He'd managed to salvage very little of the pinkish substance to experiment with, and it might take ages for him to reproduce the ionic alignment the lightning had endowed it with... if he could even make that happen... That could mean April would be trapped in a foreign body for weeks, months...

He didn't want to think the word 'years.' He couldn't allow her to be stuck down here that long. The pressure was on... the clock was ticking.

April came out of the lair to sit by him, still wobbling a little with each step. "Hi," she said simply.

"Hi," he repeated, a bit stunned as she immediately leaned against him. Evidently, some of what he had been thinking hadn't escaped her either.

"So..." she started, "This is awkward..." She fidgeted.

"Yeah, I know... break up due to incompatibility issues, then suddenly, boom, we're compatible." He hadn't meant to sound bitter saying it, but Donatello realized it had come out that way. “Ironic, huh?”

April looked away. "I'm sorry, Donnie... I never thought we'd have a snowball's chance in Hell... I didn’t want to drag things out and make them worse. And now two weeks later, fate goes and proves me wrong and Hitler starts handing out the ice skates."

He put an arm around her side, amazed again at how perfectly shaped her shell was for this. "You couldn't have known. And you were right, we were just setting ourselves up for a bad situation. And I _will_ get you back to normal. I promise. Though how..." He drifted back to trying to suss out an answer, but the light pressure of April leaning against him recaptured his attention."

"In the meantime, do you think..." She looked up at him hopefully.

"...we could be back together?" he finished for her, and she grinned. "I'd like that a lot." He pulled her closer. "You do look incredible as a turtle, you know."

She snorted. "I suppose it could've been a lot worse, couldn't it?"

"You're the most beautiful mutant I've ever seen," he said, stroking he hair. “But then.. I guess you always were…”

April chuckled. "You're biased. But I'll take the compliment anyway." She leaned in and bumped her beak against his, then looked a bit abashed. "Uh, oops... still figuring this out,” she apologized. "Kissing isn't going to work like this..."

Donnie's heart soared just at the fact she wanted to kiss him. "We'll figure it out, or we'll make it up as we go along," he told her. "For instance..." He pressed his beak against hers, forcing both upward until their mouths made contact, then nipped at her with his lower lip. After a moment of surprise, she returned his nibbling. With some twisting and turning, they eventually even managed some suction between them.

After a while, she pulled back, searching for air. She gave a contented sigh and nuzzled his neck. "I could get used to this... though, this whole new body needs some getting used to... Maybe you could help me with that?"

"Like what?" He feigned innocence, but his mind was already zooming to places he knew were completely inappropriate and he could feel a blush rising in his cheeks.

He wasn’t the only one, though. April was also turning a bit pink through her dusky emerald skin. In a bold move, much more bold than he expected of her, she took hold of his wrists and pulled them toward her so that his hands pressed against the subtly arced breastplating of her plastron. He would have gasped had his lungs not completely abandoned him at that moment. Embarrassed, he tried to draw back, but she held his hands fast. “No,” she said firmly. “I need to know how everything feels.”

Donatello gulped, finding his mouth dry. He didn’t think he could move, but that was okay because April started moving his hands for him, downward, across the scutes of her torso. Eventually she let go, his hands continuing down the front of her of their own volition now. She breathed out contentedly as he reached the bottom of her shell and traced his fingers over her thigh, and then—no, he didn’t _dare_ go there yet! Instead, he followed the exposed skin up along her sides to the bridging of her odd figure-8-shaped shell. She shuddered under his touch. He continued his way up and over her bare shoulder, bringing them closer together. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, and her jaw hung slack. He seized the opportunity and dove in for another kiss, capturing her mouth with his. She posed no objection, relinquishing her entire self to him.

When they broke apart again, he continued caressing her, now with greater confidence and zeal. He nuzzled his beak into her neck—God, she smelled amazing! More so than when she had been human, he thought. He bent further and nibbled the point where her neck met her shoulder, enjoying now not only the smell of her, but the taste as well. _The combination of female human and turtle pheromones_ , he found himself thinking, _perfectly blended for the attraction of—_

His brain stopped as the feeling of her fingers ranging along his sides whipped all thought away. She pressed against him, hands moving backward across his shoulders, and—“Whoo…Oh, man…” he breathed, trying to clear his head and recover from the sudden, intense thrill of pleasure that April’s touch had caused him.

She looked up to him with a smirk. “I’m betting that’s not a place that gets touched very often.”

“No, never…” he replied to her, somewhat awed, as she resumed stroking the tender skin where his back joined to his shell. It was a place that he himself couldn’t even reach. The new sensation was incredible, sending a wave of pleasure to all parts of his body as it was touched… His eyes rolled back and he groaned involuntarily. Something in his nether-regions loosened, but he paid it little mind until April pulled back and snickered, “My, that’s… formidable.”

Donnie felt all the color drain from his face out of embarrassment. His member had unfurled itself from its place under his shell and was now waving and pulsing before him, a two-foot, dark purple behemoth. He chuckled uncomfortably. “Well, it _is_ meant to reach under the shell of another turtle…”

“How convenient, then, that we have another turtle for it to reach under!” she coyly purred, stroking its length.

He leaned his shell back against the wall of the station with a hand over his eyes, still torn between shyness and arousal. He had nearly gotten up the gumption to tell her to stop when another kind of ecstasy rocked through him. “Jesus Fuck, April!” he panted, looking up to confirm that, yes, she was in fact on her hands and knees, sucking on the end of that formidable dick. His mind wasn’t even working properly anymore; all the blood powering it had gone south. He reached to gently push her away and only managed to pull her hair loose of its band. Her red hair spilled over her shoulders and hung like a curtain over her face, silken smooth as it slid off his fingers. There was no use resisting at this point. The pressure in his phallus reached a point where he thought he might burst, but just then, she released him, a string of saliva clinging from his penis to her lip. She wiped it away as he looked up incredulously. “You’re stopping _now_??” he queried mournfully, voice full of unmet expectation.

“Of course,” she replied casually. “I still need you hard for this part…” She repositioned herself above him, aiming the massive shaft at the entrance of her cloaca.

Donnie finally found his voice. “April, don’t!” he cried. “I don’t want it to hurt you!”

She gazed lovingly down on him. “I have to know this body… I have to know the inside as well. I need you to do this for me, and I want to do it for you. Besides,” she added, “you can’t hurt me… now that we’ve got parts that are made to fit together. _Help_ me.”

Not waiting for any objections, she slid down onto him, warm wetness engulfing his member inch by inch. He lost coherency again, lost the thought that this was not the demure girl he knew, only managing a few random syllables as pleasure hit him. “Ha ma na ji bu ya ka sha wa hah…”

She managed three-quarters of his length before stopping. Using his shoulders to support herself, she worked her way up and down him, each time with a petite little moan. But she moved achingly slowly… He couldn’t take it any longer. With a swift maneuver, he shoved her back on her shell. She gave out a shriek, a mix of shock and painful pleasure as he plunged deep and hard into her. Now with the correct leverage and with a grip on her carapace, he forced himself into her moist, tight cloaca time and time again, rocking her back on her shell with each thrust. April yelped with each beat, every shriek gaining in pitch. She was very near climaxing, but… _Let’s see what this does to you…_ , he thought. Shifting his balance point to her shoulders as she had done, he began stroking the sensitive skin under her shell as he moved within her.

The effect on her was electric: she bucked and arched against him with a pleasured scream, followed by several more. He was very nearly at his limit as well, and with the extra encouragement of her screams of, “Oh, Donnie! Oh, Donnie!!”, he blossomed within her. It took several shots to empty his massive cock, but, having done its job, it pulled out and was now rapidly shrinking down and retracting beneath his shell.

April turned over and collapsed along the concrete of the platform, panting heavily, looking satiated. “Ohhh, Donnie,” she repeated, now just a sigh instead of a scream. He stretched out beside her, tracing the hexagonal spirals on her shell. For several minutes, they enjoyed the stillness of lying together.

Remembering something, Don started chuckling. “Did you find out enough about yourself, or do we have to keep experimenting?”

She laughed with him. “There’s more I need to know, I’m sure, but for now, I’m just completely exhausted! And I’m pretty sure I need a shower…” She collected her hairband and pulled the red curtain back into its usual shape.

Donnie sighed. “Yeah, I guess we ought to be getting back… I’m sure the guys will be wondering where we’ve been…”

 

Mikey’s head popped up from the bench before the TV as soon as April walked through the turnstile that led into the lair, Donnie following her. “They’re back!” he yelled ecstatically, leaping to his feet.

April looked a bit floored. “It’s… good to see you too, Mikey…”

Leo turned over on the bench before the TV, setting his head on his hands as he looked over its back. “So, congratulations, you two,” he said, smiling at them. Even Raphael gave them a kinder smirk than usual.

“…Congratulations for what?” April asked, confused.

“Wait, wait… you guys _heard_ us??” Donnie interrupted.

Raph waved a dismissive hand, looking at them over his shoulder. “All of Jersey heard you, Oh-Donnie-oh-Donnie.”

Donatello’s cheeks colored again, then reddened even further as Mikey shoved April against him and hugged them both. “I love you guys!” he squee-ed. “Apritello is totally my OTP!!”

“OTP?” Don prompted for interpretation.

“One Turtle Pairing!” Mikey listed on his fingers. Then he recovered his ear-to-ear grin. “…And I’m so happy for you guys!” He jogged in place, in utter rapture.

April grinned back at him. “Thanks, Mikey.” She detached herself from Donatello and headed for the shower, when Leo piped up.

“Oh, and April, your dad called. I told him you were training.”

She stopped dead in her tracks. “My dad!” She blinked. “Ohmygod, my dad!! How’m I gonna break this to him? He’ll be devastated!”

After pacing for several minutes, she took out her phone, selected the number for her father, let it ring once, then shut it off again with a groan. “No…”

Leo tracked her around the room. “Do…you want me to call him? Or Donnie could… He and your dad get along pretty well…”

April thought it over. “No… it’d better be me he talks to… otherwise he’ll think something’s wrong.”

“Something _is_ wrong; you’re a goddamn mutant turtle!” Raph snorted, earning scathing glares from Donnie and Leo. April looked like the comment stung her a bit. “I mean… there’s nothing wrong with being a mutant turtle… Heck, I love it. But it’s not…” he searched desperately for better words, “…natural. And it’s not like we’re exactly natural either, but—Ya know what, I’m just gonna stop talking now.”

“Good idea,” Leo confirmed.

April dialed her phone again. Her father’s voice came over the line. “O’Neil here.”

“Dad!”

“Oh, hi, April. Are you going to be home for dinner tonight? I’m making your mom’s lasagna… well, trying to. There’s always something missing… it’s not quite salty enough…”

“So, add salt. Dad—“

“Salt! Hah! April, you’re brilliant. So, dinner?”

“Afraid not.” She braced herself. “Look, Dad… there was an accident with some mutagen… and I’m fine, but I’ve been turned into a turtle.” There was dead silence on the other side of the line. “Dad?” No response. “Dad! Are you there?” Her eyes conveyed a look of panic as she looked back at the turtles. “I think he fainted! Ohhmygosh, what am I gonna do? Dad, wake up! Dad!!”

“—April?” came Kirby’s voice at last. “Are you still there? I didn’t have time to warn you I was going through a tunnel.”

She let out a groan of exasperation and relief.

“Anyway, will you be home on time?” he said calmly.

He’d missed the whole thing she’d been gearing up to say. But now that she knew he was driving, she didn’t dare give him the bad news and risk him actually fainting. She sighed. “Okay, Dad? I need you to come to the lair. It’s really important, okay?”

“Honey, if you need a ride, you can just say so.”

“No, I don’t… just come down here as soon as you can. _Safely_.”

 

Twenty minutes later, Mr. O’Neil appeared at the entrance to the lair. “Greetings, everyone!” he called. “Now, does anyone want to tell me why I’m down—hah—“ To his credit, he didn’t faint when he caught sight of the maskless, red-haired turtle. He did, however, sit down hard on the steps, slack-jawed.

Leo and Mikey hurried over to make sure he wasn’t going to fall. April was right behind them. “Dad!”

“April!” he said, shocked. “What happened to you?”

“I got mutated,” she said.

“Obviously… but… aren’t you immune to the mutagen the Kraang use?”

Donatello interceded. “Under normal circumstances, yes, but this flask was hit by lightning. I haven’t had time to study it much yet, but just on a cursory glance, it seems like the electric current ionized certain parts of the mutagen in a way that doesn’t respond to April’s Kraang blood. I have it on a slide, if you’d like to see.”

“Of course,” the scientist said, rising to his feet, curious.

“Can I get you something to drink, Mr. O’Neil?” Leo offered.

“Thank you, Leonardo, some tea would be… welcomely calming.”

 

Moments later, Kirby O’Neil had his eye to Donatello’s microscope. “Fascinating… it looks as though it’s completely restructured the chemical bonds at the molecular level. Look how it’s formed into a latticed matrix as opposed to the more hexagonal of the original…”

Raph, while not interested in the least at staring at squiggles and blobs and polygons through a little tube, was keeping an eye on the situation from his beanbag chair. “You sure seem to know a lot about chemistry for just being a head shrink, Kirby.”

Mr. O’Neil blinked and looked up at him from the mutagen samples. “You have to in this field, Raphael, and you’re thinking of psychiatry, not psychology. They call them ‘soft sciences,’ but when it comes to seeing how the mind works, much of it comes down to biology and chemistry and social science and how they all interact to produce thought, and in some cases, it entails knowing what and how much to prescribe for patients or subjects to affect proper working of the brain. They don’t just give Master’s degrees away for nothing, you know,” he smirked. Raph gave him a “fair enough” nod. “Ah, Leonardo, thank you,” Kirby said, accepting the cup and saucer from Leo and taking a sip. “Now then, Donatello, do you have a course of action in mind to get my April back to normal?”

“Well, I’m hoping to follow the basic formula that led me to creating the retro-mutagen we used to restore you, but for that, I need to create several canisters of the ionized mutagen. We’ve got mutagen; that’s no problem, but generating the kind of electricity it would take to re-create a lightning bolt, well…”

April’s dad thought for a moment. “A Van de Graaff generator might do it. They’re not hard to build… And the bigger, the better for the charge you’re probably looking to generate. I’ll see what I can dig up for parts for you.”

Donnie gave him a wide smile. “Thanks a lot, Mr. O’Neil!”

“No,” Kirby said, shaking Don’s hand, “Thank you, all of you, for taking care of us. Without you, I’m sure we’d be a lot worse off.” He suddenly gripped Donnie’s upper arm tightly and muttered so only Donnie could hear, “If you hurt her, I don’t care how good a ninja you are; they will never find all the pieces of you.” He gave Donnie’s arm a squeeze and released him with a thin grin. “Just so we understand each other.”

Donnie gave a false smile and laughed nervously. He was pretty sure that wasn’t a joke. “Don’t worry, sir. We’ll take care of her.”

“I know you will, Donatello. You always do. April, I’ll drop by the school and get your homework.”

April wilted a bit. “You would think I would get a break from schoolwork for getting turned into a mutant…”

Kirby smiled. “I know you’ve been out for a big part of the year, saving the world and all, but you will pass this grade if it kills you. I know you can manage. I’ll just tell the school… you have mono. That can keep you out for weeks. Ah, Master Splinter,” he shifted his attention as the rat emerged from his study. “Good to see you again.”

“Indeed, my friend,” Splinter greeted warmly with a slight bow to the doctor. “I merely came to reassure you that April is in good hands with us. She is a daughter to me as much as she is to you, if I may be so bold.”

“That is high praise from a teacher.”

“In Japanese tradition, the role of a teacher reaches much further than here. When one takes on a student as their sensei, they take on personal responsibility for that student in all aspects of their life. Thus it is not something entered into lightly. I am proud of her progress and I know that she will continue to do well, whatever her form.”

“Thank you, Splinter.” He turned to the rest of the room. “Well, I suppose I’ll be going. I wish you all a pleasant evening.” He turned to April and gathered her into a hug. “And YOU, stay out of trouble,” he said jokingly. He kissed her forehead, then held her out at arms length from himself. “Green is not a bad color on you, incidentally,” he said, and April hugged him again before he walked out through the turnstiles.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... That escalated quickly.


	4. 1 > 2  (One Is Greater Than Two)

 

         Chapter 4 - 1 > 2 (One Is Greater Than Two)

 

April landed on her shell again, and she was getting irritated about it. Donnie held a hand out and helped her to her feet. She groaned. “Do shells bruise, or is that just my internal organs continually getting thrashed?” This was the fifth time she’d overbalanced, and they had only been training for a few minutes.

“God, Donnie, don’t break her!” Raph mockingly admonished from across the room.

Donatello rolled his eyes and ignored his brother, though Mr. O’Neil’s warning still rang fresh in his ears from the previous night. “Okay, well… normal sparring is out for now until you can get your balance back, so let’s try going over some of the basic movements first.” He guided her into the stances of a simple kata, a step followed by a lunge, followed by a 90-degree pivot. She managed the first two moves, but the extra weight and inflexibility of her shell unbalanced her, and she fell forward with an “Oof!”

He reversed his pivot to see her on the floor. He knew she didn’t want his pity, but it didn’t keep him from feeling it. He held out his hand to pull her to her feet. “Okay, again… this time, mirror me,” he said, turning to face her to begin the move again. Step, lunge, step, turn… This time she made the corner, but overbalanced to the side in attempting the leg-sweep. She let out a yelp as she teetered sideways, but Donnie caught hold of her shell before she went down. She smiled abashedly but gratefully at him, and readied herself again, determination in her eyes… as well as something else he couldn’t quite read.

On the next attempt, she missed her footing on the pivot again. She tripped and fell headlong into him. He managed to catch her, but it threw him out of his stance and they both stumbled. “I think I see the problem here,” he declared. “Looks like you’re leaning too much and overcompensating. “Here… put your feet together, and close your eyes. Cross your arms.” He took a hold of her shell with both hands. “And just trust me. I won’t let you fall.”

“I know you won’t,” she replied, but that didn’t keep her from gasping a bit as he began rocking her from side to side, then forward and backward and around in a complete circle.

“Concentrate; feel where your balance points are.” He repeated the sequence again, widening the diameter of the arc he moved her in. Then he let go of her shell, and merely bounced her in another direction as she tipped back and forth. After a few minutes of tilting her around, he smirked to himself and let her fall backward, stepping around behind her to catch her. She shrieked as she fell outside of the radius he’d established and opened her eyes in panic. He caught her low, and gave her an upside-down grin. “Told you I’d catch you.” He set her upright.

“You’re mean!” she chided with a giggle.

“ I know, I’m sorry,” he smiled, smitten with her laugh. “Ready to try again?”

She nodded. “Let’s go!” She stared into his eyes as they began. Those eyes were… capturing. Donnie couldn’t loose himself from them… nor did he want to. They performed the entire kata with a locked gaze, April bending further forward on the turns and placing her feet more securely, keeping her balance at last. Wordlessly, they moved into the next series, not looking forward as they should, but still into each other’s eyes. This one required a twisting leap, which they both executed without breaking from each other.

Mikey, sparring with Leo in the other half of the dojo, looked over as he blocked Leo’s katanas with the chain of one of his nunchaku. He grinned. “Hey, Leo?”

“Yeah?” he said, irritated that he couldn’t break through Mikey’s defense, even when he wasn’t paying attention.

“Do turtles do mating dances?”

“Not as far as I know…”

Mike nodded to his right. “Then, what’s that?”

Leo blinked and looked up, releasing the force on Mikey’s nun-chuck. “Well, whaddya know…” He had to smile warmly, watching their brother and April performing mirrored katas at speed without breaking eye-contact. Their synchrony was striking in its perfection. Lunges, steps, flips, somersaults, thrusts, leg-sweeps, breaks, punches… all in perfect time with each other. Though nothing touched but their gaze, they may as well have been doing a tango.

After several minutes, their series came to an end, but they remained enrapt with each other. Breathing hard, but far from exhausted, they simply stared at one another for a moment. Then Donnie suggested, “Staves?”

April gave him a rather mischievous nod. “Staves.” They walked, still in step, to the weapons rack. April picked up Donnie’s bo, he picked up her training staff, and they handed them to each other, all the while still staring into the other’s eyes. Donatello put a finger on what he’d seen in her look now… it was desire, and he knew she was seeing the same in his eyes.

Their first move against each other, a basic strike, ended with the barest tap of their weapons. Where their previous spar had been a ruthless battle, this one was a ballet; delicate, intricate, tender. Both were pulling the force of their strikes; if their weapons touched at all, they made only a whisper compared to their former thunderclaps. The game had become close strikes with no impact; a display of trust and control. April came at him with a backhand spin and a powerful overhead blow that stopped an inch from his skull and angled down past his beak. He returned the gesture by dodging her next parry and flipping past her to avoid contacting her face with his thrust. His horizontal spin and her vertical, both whirling blurs, intersected, but never touched.

“Donatello!” The shout disrupted his concentration so much that Donnie let go of his bo and it went clattering into a corner. April stopped mid-move as well.

“Sensei!” Donnie bowed, and his partner did likewise.

Splinter returned the bow. “I had called you to halt, but it appears you did not hear me.”

“Oh! Uhh, sorry, Master.”

The rat-mutant held up a palm forgivingly. “Interesting techniques the two of you were using.”

Donnie blushed a bit, feeling like they’d been caught cheating. “Uh… We were just…” He went to collect his bo, searching for a reasonable excuse.

Splinter held up a hand to interrupt. “Restraint is also a discipline. There are times when you must control yourself to keep from injuring others. It is good that you and April are practicing this. But for now, I have another exercise in mind. Donatello and April, against Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo.”

Leo objected. “Isn’t that a bit unfair, sensei? Two against three? Or anybody versus Raph…”

“Life is rarely fair, Leonardo. Hajime!”

Don felt thrown for a loop, but April looked into his eyes again, and all in the world was well. They bowed to their opponents and began. The two of them backflipped in tandem to the center of the training mat, back to back, putting themselves in the middle of the triangle of Raph, Leo, and Mikey. As one, they took a defensive stance, staves pointed outward at an angle.

Mikey’s eyebrows raised in apprehension. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”

“What’re you so scared of?” Raph mocked. “It’s just Donnie and April… You’ve taken Donnie down before.”

“You don’t understand, dude… this isn’t ‘Donnie’ and ‘April’… “ he separated them with hand gestures, ”… it’s ‘Donnie AND April!’ ”

“What?! You never make any sense!”

Leo huffed. “Less talking, more attacking! Go!” He leapt forward toward the pair, facing April…

…and was struck in the face by a backward jab from Donnie’s bo. It was so out of the blue, he figured Donnie had done it by accident. But then it happened to Raph too; as Raphael charged in, grappling Donnie’s bo with his sai, April spun her rattan staff backward over her head, connecting with Raph’s hard enough to make him see stars. Raph looked dumbfounded, then furious.

Mikey stayed off to the side, waiting for an opening, swinging one nun-chuck and muttering to himself, “Ohgodohgodohgodohgod…”

Leo stepped back into form, aiming a single blade at April. She caught it on her staff, not pushing against, but cushioning the blow and letting the blade ease partway into the wood. When it was firmly set, she spun it, taking the sword out of Leo’s hand. It eventually spun loose and clanked against a wall. He blinked dumbly at her, guarding with his remaining katana.

Raphael made a charge at Donnie, whose forehand spin should have been easy to block—had it been an overhand spin. Before Raph reached him, Don planted the bo into the ground and pole-vaulted over his enraged brother; it was one of April’s signature moves. Raph spun to face Don as he landed, but then hit the floor as April’s staff took out his ankles, and Leo suddenly found himself faced with Donnie as he landed. Confused by the change of opponents, he took two jabs to the plastron.

Mikey thought he saw his chance and ran into the fray. “…ohgodohgodOHGODOHGODOHGOD!!” He thought he had a good shot at taking Donatello down, but Don ducked into a leg sweep as Michelangelo approached, revealing April swinging around on her staff like a pole dancer. She planted both feet into his chest, and he flew backwards into the wall behind him. “Oh god…” he groaned painfully, unpeeling from the wall and hitting the floor.

“How’re they DOING THIS?!” Raph shouted, charging at April, at the same time Leo charged at Donatello. They were rewarded with matching blows to the stomach from the turtle they weren’t facing.

“They have attained a synergy,” Splinter answered above the din of their clashing weapons. “They move as one, they act as one, they think as one. Each anticipates the other’s movements. You are not fighting two opponents, but one, with the combined skill of two. This makes their power greater than the two alone.”

“Totally called it…” Mikey gasped from the floor, raising a finger. Splinter gave him a nod of assent.

Almost by means of demonstration, Don and April whirled their staves, April’s overhead and Donnie’s vertical, the two circular blurs intersecting without ever disrupting one another. Then in one motion, Donnie leveled his bo at Leo in a charging position, while April dropped into a crouching stance, staff in a defensive posture toward Raph.

“So how’re we supposed to beat ‘em?” Raph began circling, only to have Donnie step into April’s defense stance as he reached her side. She stepped up into the charging stance to take Donatello’s place. “This is so weird…”

 _“What’s the matter, guys?”_ Don and April spoke with one voice. They even slowly tilted their heads in the same direction. _“Scaaaaared?”_

Leo let out a shocked, “Ahh!” as Raph pointed a sai at the two of them. “…And _that_ was just fuckin’ creepy!”

“Try to drive them apart… that might sever their connection,” Leo proposed. He and Raphael jumped, landing between the synergized pair, attacking swiftly and forcing the two away from each other before either could counter.

 _“That’s not going to work,_ “ they both said.

“Stop that!!” Raph hollered, attempting to twist Donnie’s bo to the breaking point, but only managing to circle with him. Leo seemed to be having similar trouble, swinging at April, but being blocked and subtly turned around.

 _“You know why?”_ they said together.

“Because now….” said Donatello.

“…you’ve gotten…” April continued.

 _“…BETWEEN US!”_ Both of them dipped beneath their staves, landing powerful kicks to the chests of Leo and Raph. The two brothers flew backward, their shells slamming together as they met in the middle of the arena. Their opponents leapt in tandem, landing with staves ready to strike should Raph or Leo try to get up.

“Yame!” Splinter called, signaling the end of the match. “Donatello, April, well done. Such synergy is rarely achieved, even in the best-trained ninja.”

 _“Thank you, Master_ ,” they said in unison, bowing, staves straight by their sides.

“But do stop that. It is creepy.”

“Sorry!” April apologized, breaking away from their paired speech. As Splinter retreated to his room, the two of them retreated into each other’s eyes once again. April made a subtle nod toward the turnstiles. Donnie grinned and nodded. They ran together toward the steps that led out of the lair.

Donatello had just rounded the corner of the wall, when Raph called out, “Yo, Donnie! Hold up a sec…”

Don stuck his head back around the wall questioningly. Raph met him at the top of the steps, and muttered, “If you guys are looking for a little… ya know, privacy… there’s an empty subway car down by the 145th Street station. I’ve been… upgrading it a bit, for comfort.”

Don gave him a grin and a thumbs up. “Thanks, Raph!” Raph waved nonchalantly, heading back down the steps.

 

They were lucky they even made it as far as the subway car; their lovemaking started right outside the door to the lair, kissing and nuzzling. Then one of them would chase the other for a few yards, whereupon the pursued would be pounced upon and surrender, and the kissing and nuzzling would start all over again.

The car’s one working light buzzed on as Donnie slid the door open and shut it again behind them. Raphael had indeed spruced the train car up considerably, having removed the old seats and dragged in a bunch of mismatched abandoned furniture: an armchair, a sofa (that must’ve been a challenge…), and a surprisingly decent-looking sheeted Queen-size mattress on the floor.

“Why does Raph have _that_ in here?” April wondered aloud. Their synergy was still feeding him her thoughts, but talking normally was much more habitual… sometimes the silence felt weird.

Donnie shrugged. “Try sharing a house with three brothers. Even having your own room sometimes isn’t privacy enough.” He wondered what exactly Raph _had_ been doing on this mattress, but he pushed the thought aside, instead imagining what he and April would be doing on it in a few minutes.

She caught his eyes with hers again. _God help me, Donnie, I want you in me right now_ , she thought to him. No part of him needed further encouragement, and his schlong revealed itself from beneath his shell, swelling quickly. He thought of asking her if she as ready for him but he already knew that she was; it was just common courtesy to check. _Always the gentleman_ , she thought back, and his adoration for her poured over her mind.

Then he thought, _I wonder if it counts as auto-erotica if you have sex with someone you’re sharing a mind with?,_ and April burst out in giggles. He reddened a bit. _This is really not the venue to use for private thoughts, is it?_

 _Really not,_ she thought back, and she blushed as well as the mental image of a pop star she had the hots for floated unbidden to the surface of her thoughts, and then a thought of Casey, which really made her turn red.

 _It’s all right,_ he comforted, letting his slight jealousy pass (after all, it wasn’t Casey who was here with her). He stroked her cheek with a hand. Both of them dropped to their knees on the mattress. _Just think of it as… intimacy._ But both of them were suddenly thinking of another kind of intimacy. April lay back onto her shell and spread her legs for him. A stray thought wondered what she looked like beneath her shell, and Donnie was happy to oblige her, giving the clenched bud of her cloaca a close look. _Wait a minute—I have a tail?!_ she noticed. Her utter shock was too much for him, and he laughed aloud. _I guess we didn’t get that far, did we, last time? I suppose we overlooked a little detail._ And then it hit him that it was a pun, _De tail,_ and then they were both cracking up. He sought her eyes as their laughter died down, and they were swept away in the roiling tide of emotions.

He bent forward again to kiss her, and love and desire surged over them both. She reached up to cradle his head in her hands, and once again, he was hit with her unique scent. The pheromone rush drove their lust into high gear. He rushed to line up his bulging cock with her entrance, slowing a bit at her concern that it might hurt. He pushed in, and suddenly he was getting feedback from pleasure centers he didn’t have. He gasped and pushed further, now understanding her insistently slow motions the previous time. _Ram it in, Donnie… do it!_ her thought came. He couldn’t deny her, though the painful pleasure nearly knocked him out. How did women not die every time they did this?! He pulled back and thrust in again, feeling himself, feeling her, and feeling her feeling him. Together they let out a moan. He moved in and out of her, with the bizarre sensation that he was moving in and out of himself.

He found himself caught in her eyes again, the pleasure lust-lidding them. He could fall forever into those dark eyes; he could see stars, galaxies within them. They were infinite, and yet, he could see himself reflected in them. It made him feel even more like a part of her, and he reveled in it. Something welled deep within him.

She stroked one three-fingered hand over his shoulder. It was, naturally, no surprise for him where that hand was headed; he knew every intention, and his anticipation for her touch only increased. She intuited the very best spot to touch and stroked the sweet spot under his shell, sending thrills through them both, then pinched the tender tissue. It was agony, and it was ecstasy! They emitted the same scream, wracked with wave after wave of pleasure coursing through them. She quivered beneath him. He arched as far as his shell would allow, releasing his massive load into her once more, still being hit with ripples of pleasure from her orgasm. They rested a moment, breathing heavily, but relaxing at last. Both gave a pleasured yelp as he pulled free from her and collapsed back on his shell. Donnie wondered offhand if it was weird to have screamed one’s own name during sex. April’s mirth answered his thought, excusing it for special circumstances. She made a note to clean the sheets for Raph, as they would be left quite wet. _Should be sure to thank him for letting us use this place_ , she mentally mumbled to herself. He reached out to give her a caress through their connection.

Donatello sank into exhaustion, realizing it was the exhaustion of them both combined. He curled up against the back of April’s shell, laying his head against it. He had only intended to rest his eyes for a minute, but the intention to stay awake when fatigued never holds up against the beckoning of sleep, and in a moment, slumber had him.

 

Donnie woke from a horrible dream which he could no longer remember, and into crushing depression and loneliness. He felt as if he had been beaten, raped, and thrown in a dumpster to die. The single fluorescent light in the subway car was still on, flickering, but Donatello’s feeling was that he’d been thrown into a dark pit, so deep that he had no hope of escaping it. Tears of despair leaked from his eyes… Why? This was so irrational… He looked around; April was still there by his side, curled up asleep inside her shell. He reached out with his mind, and couldn’t find her.

That must have been it; their synergistic connection had broken when they’d fallen asleep. And the despair, then, was the sudden lack of April in his mind. Half of him was missing. He clung desperately to her shell, needing her presence, though he didn’t dare wake her… she would be subjected to the same soon enough.

She eventually woke as well, emerging from her shell with a distraught look. She began weeping almost immediately. “It’s all right, I have you,” he comforted. “I’m right here.”

“Donnie… I feel so lost..” she said morosely. She clung to him as though death was the alternative. “Where are you? I can’t feel you any more!” She started to panic.

He was there to save her. “I’ve got you… we’re okay. Our synergy broke… I think we’re just coming down from it.”

“This isn’t right, I want to die without you with me!” she wailed.

“I’m still with you, Sweetheart, right here.” He spun her slightly so they faced each other. He looked her in the eyes, and the painful loneliness eased slightly for both of them. Clutching her to him, he stroked her hair. She threw her arms around his neck, holding him for dear life.

“Splinter…” she said tearfully. “Master Splinter knows about these things… maybe he can help us.”

 

The rat mutant paced in front of them. “Synergies are very rare occurrences, even with the most highly-trained of ninja,” he explained. “The bond between the souls of those involved must be very firm… in other words, very similar to one another, for the synergy to take place at all. The pair must be engaged with each other on all levels: mentally, spiritually, and physically. Once initially established, it can easily be found again.”

“Well, that explains how we got there,” Donatello reasoned, holding his chin in one finger.

“So how do you sever the connection? Is there a way it’s supposed to be done?” April asked.

Splinter nodded. “Similar to coming out of a meditative state, a synergized pair must go through steps of separation, or else risk the debilitations you describe feeling. It is a slower way of pulling away from each other, as if shutting the doors in both minds that have been opened. The deeper the connection, the more time it takes to draw back from it.”

“…and therefore falling asleep while still connected was really dumb. Had we only known…”

“Indeed, Donatello. Though, indeed, it did not occur to me to instruct you in how to leave your synergy. The fault lies with me. Synergies that are disrupted too soon have resulted in one or both participants ending their own lives.” He turned, staring toward the back wall of his study. “They were unable to cope with the loss of the bond.”

“You sound like you knew them personally,” April said sympathetically.

Splinter nodded once in a small motion. “It was many years ago, in Japan.   Fujiama Keto, and his wife to be, Hayashibara Setsuko. He was a friend of mine, from the same dojo, and a neighbor.   While locked in synergy, something occurred in Setsuko’s brain, a seizure, which tore them out of their synergistic state. They never managed to bond again, and within weeks, Setsuko took her own life. Keto, having lost her, succumbed to his despair soon after. He… allowed himself to starve.”

April and Donatello exchanged looks, leaning into one another from their seated positions on the floor. “Sensei… how terrible!” Donnie whispered.

The two stared at each other, no longing in their eyes this time, but with shock and something akin to horror. “In other words, we should never, ever do that again,” April declared.

“Not necessarily,” Splinter contradicted. “Setsuko and Keto’s fate was simply misfortune. I tell you of it as a cautionary tale. As with any art, synergy can be practiced and perfected. However, it must be done with care, lest injury or worse occur. A strengthened connection might even lead to experiencing full thoughts from one another. Experienced synergists can manage to hold their connection for twenty minutes or longer.”

April blinked back at their sensei. Donatello drew in a startled breath.

“Master, what if… one of the synergists is already sort of… psychic?”

Splinter whirled back around. He read the expression on April’s face thoroughly. “How long were the two of you bonded?”

Donnie calculated. “Well, we started training around one, and the synergy started when we were about half an hour in… It was about 4:30 when we got back, and if we slept for, say, an hour and a half… I’d guess at between an hour and a half and two hours.” Don grinned happily at his assessment, then sobered at Splinter’s stunned expression.

“Two hours!” he gaped. “Never have I heard of—And the depth of the connection?”

“Erm…” Donnie looked upward, blushing.

April reddened as well, twiddling her fingers. “Deep,” she decided.

“Really deep,” Don echoed.

“Very deep.”

“Really very deep.”

The ninja master stared at them, amazed. “Then…” he said at last, “here is what I recommend you do: practice your synergy as a skill. Learn to step into and out of it as you would meditation, spending at least a fourth of the time on pulling back from each other’s mind. Do not spend more time in synergy than twenty minutes or half an hour at a time until you have mastered exiting. And be _very_ careful. Be on alert that your connection will not be broken, and be aware of the withdrawal symptoms. Is that clear?”

“Hai, sensei!” they both repeated (separately), bowing.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The synergy thing wasn't something I had planned when I started writing this fic; it just happened, and I ran with it. It came to be the major device that fueled the whole fic.
> 
> I would have like to just have the chapter name as 1 > 2, but not everyone is mathematically-minded enough to know what that means. (In fact, I had to explain to my mathematician husband _why_ 1 was greater than 2 in this case.)
> 
> Shakira's "Empire" was a major influence for this chapter.


	5. Electrify

                        Chapter 5 - Electrify

 

Mr. O’Neil showed up three days later with a mishmash of metal plates, pipes, wires, a piece of a conveyor belt, a sizeable motor, a car battery, and several other odds an ends. Donatello exulted over the haul. “This is perfect! Where in the world did you find all this great stuff??”

“There’s a scrap yard a bit upstate… I picked up most of it there.   It was a long drive, but, well, priorities.” He grinned at his turtle-fied daughter.

“Thanks, Dad,” she said warmly, hugging him.

“All the best for my girl,” he beamed. “And, speaking of priorities,” he said, producing a messenger bag from one of the boxes, “…your homework.”

April let out a less-than-thrilled sigh. “Oh yay,” she said flatly.

Donnie smiled down to her as she pulled her books out to see her assignments. “You may as well get started… I’m just gonna be carting all this stuff down to the next station for the rest of the afternoon, maybe start welding the domes…”

“You’re not building it here, then?” Kirby asked, a bit shocked. “Won’t it be safer here?”

“Eh, not likely. I’ll do the welding here in the garage, but otherwise, it’s better to keep it off-site. It might survive Leo unless Nerfdart Ninja Deathmatch gets out of control, but Raph’d probably put dents in it for laughs and Mikey’d try to use it to make cheeto, onion, and electron pizza,” Don scoffed. “I’ll be saving them from themselves by putting it somewhere they can’t conveniently set off bolts of lightning.”

Kirby chuckled appreciatively. “I can relate. I grew up with two brothers myself.” He patted Donatello on the shoulder and turned to leave. “Good luck. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

“Thanks, Mr. O’Neil!” Donnie called after him.

April looked up from her pages of assignments. “Are you ever gonna call my dad by his first name?”

“No, not too likely.”

“Why not? He likes you!”

Donnie shrugged as he picked up a box of pipes. “Oh, respect, professionalism… and I want to keep on his good side in case he ever figures out I’m banging his high-school-age daughter while she happens to be compatible with my ginormous penis…” He paused. “Though, putting it that way, if he finds out, he’ll probably make turtle soup out of me himself.”

She blinked, looking stunned and then possibly even aroused, judging by the sultry look she gave him. “Okay, fair enough answer.”

 

“Mutated?! April got _mutated_?” Casey exclaimed. “How is that even possible? Isn’t she, like, immune to mutagen?”

Raph shrugged as the two of them walked through the tunnels. “Yeah, well… This was a fluke.”

“I suppose that’s why she keeps turning me down for dates lately...” he mused. “She’s not, like… really hideous or anything, is she?”

“Yeah… that totally wasn’t the shallowest thing you could’ve asked…” Raph snarked at him.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess…” Casey agreed, apologetically putting a hand to the back of his head. “But is she?”

“Eh,” Raph decided after a moment’s consideration, tilting his hand back and forth. “Maybe for a human.”

The two of them entered the lair. Casey glanced around apprehensively. Her red hair wasn’t hard to spot, visible over the top of the bench where she was focused on studying, and was certainly impossible to mistake as anyone other than April despite the green skin, beak and shell. She clamped her pencil in her teeth as she flipped a couple of pages in one of her schoolbooks.

“Red?” he asked tenuously nevertheless.

The pencil dropped out of her beak. “Casey!” She pushed her notebook off her lap and clambered over the back of the bench to meet him.

“…And I guess she’s not totally unfortunate-looking as a turtle,” Raph added to his earlier statement. April crinkled her nose at him, and he chuckled. “Okay, she’s definitely not hard on the eyes.”

“Better,” the female turtle accepted.

Casey gaped, taking in her new appearance. He whipped around and glared at Raph. “You turned her into one of you?!”

Raph held his hands up. “Hey, whoa, whoa! We didn’t do this to her! It just kinda… happened.”

“You sure?” Casey challenged. “It’s awfully convenient that she turned into a turtle.”

“It was more or less a… freak accident,” April explained. “I’m lucky Leo was the last thing to touch me, or who knows what I’d’ve ended up as?”

“Leo? I would’ve figured Donnie—“ He glanced around the lair again. “Where _is_ Donnie?”

April turned a thumb toward the garage. “Welding. Working on something that’ll be able to produce more of the mutagen that did this to me, so he can make a retro-mutagen from it.” Casey paused, now able to hear the crackle of an arc-welder in the background. “He’s really throwing himself into it… he’s been at this for hours!” she continued, casting a warm gaze at the garage. “He’s doing everything in his power to get me back to normal.”

The human teen glared resentfully toward the garage, but turned back to April before she noticed. “Is there anything I can do for you, Red? Anything I can bring you, or…?”

April considered for a moment, but came up empty. “No, not really… Dad is already bringing me all of my assignments and brought everything I need for now…”

“Oh… Well if you think of anything later…” he offered, trailing off.

She smiled back at him. “Thanks, Casey. I appreciate you trying to be helpful. If I think of anything, you’ll be the first one I call.”

He beamed his toothless smile at her.

“Hey, Jones… you want me to show you that new technique or not?” Raph called from the dojo entrance.

“Yeah… There in a sec!” He withdrew from April, ambling to the dojo, turning to dramatically throw a kiss to her before disappearing inside.

She smiled as he left, then shook her head, returning to her homework. She looked up again at the garage and stared at it for a long while.

 

Construction on the Van de Graaff generator went spectacularly smoothly, if slowly. It seemed like there were always things keeping him from working on it: the usual ninjutsu training, going out on patrol, his and April’s synergy practice, and then there were the times when she just pulled him away to have sex with her… which were admittedly frequent. Nonetheless, the machine was nearing its completion after about two weeks.

He was assembling one of the receptors when April showed up at the platform. She pulled a foil-wrapped packet out of her satchel. “Brought you lunch.”

“Oh, hey, thanks. Be there in a minute,” he called back.

She pulled out a book from her reading assignment, sat on the opposing platform, and started reading… though frequently, he caught her just looking over the top of it at him. He looked back at her. “What?” he smiled down to her.

“Nothing,” she said, and went back to her reading, or rather, staring at him over her book. He caught her at it a moment later.

“Seriously, what?”

“Nothing… just reminds me of something.” After a few more minutes, she took out her phone. “Donnie,” she called, aiming it at him.

“Hm?” he responded, screwdriver held in his teeth.

“Take a step left… now half a step forward—Stop! Perfect! Smile!” She took the shot, looked at it, and grinned to herself.

“Oh, come on, what? Do I have grease on my face or something?” He set his tools down and leapt agilely across the tracks to her. She held out her phone with the picture displayed. It was of him, standing behind the wide, bulbed receptor. The perspective made it look as it if was sprouting from his lower torso, looking very phallic. He bumped her beak and forehead with his own. “You dirty girl!”

“I can’t help it!” she giggled. “Do I need to be punished?” She trailed a hand over his thigh.

He grinned wickedly at her. “Maybe you do. Have you been bad?”

“So bad,” she purred.

“Oh dear,” he said, kissing her neck. “And what have you gone and done that’s so bad?”

She dragged her tongue across the side of his head. “I’ve tried to seduce my boyfriend.”

“Ah. That _is_ a crime,” he smiled while her tongue gave him shivers. “Well, nothing for it, you’re going to have to be spanked.”

“Woe is me!” she dramaticized, throwing a hand to her forehead. “I resign myself to my fate!” She pulled her knees beneath herself and leaned down until her head rested on her folded hands, giving him as much access to her rear as she could, most of it being hidden beneath her carapace. Donnie enjoyed the view of the back of her thighs for a minute, then gave them a gentle smack. April craned her neck around to give him an expectant look. He gave her another feather-light tap in response. She rolled her eyes and huffed, turning back around. She missed the malicious grin he took on. He tweaked her tail, and she squeaked at the unfamiliar sensation. Then he hit her hard enough for the crack of it to echo around the station, and she let out a surprised demure yelp. He repeated the motion and was rewarded with another small noise from her.

He slapped her several more times with varying degrees of force, rewarded each time with a gasp or moan from her. Her seeming enjoyment of the punishment was encouraging to him, in more ways than one. He encouraged himself a little more between the swings he delivered to her reddening thighs, and was soon able to free his manhood from the confines of his shell. He took her by surprise by lifting her back half and forcing her legs apart; she let out a startled squeal. “Or, maybe the rod is a more appropriate punishment for you, hm?” She nearly screamed as he pushed into her. He stopped her by grabbing her ponytail and yanking her head abruptly backward, cutting her off. “Sh!” he warned sharply, then started giggling. “I don’t want the guys to hear us!”

April turned enough to give him an odd look that read as “Really??”, but she complied, confining her pleasured outbursts to near silence. Tiny gasps and heavy breaths that would have been moans from her told him what he was doing right. Donnie found it a difficult task himself, having to breathe heavily or cut off a groan as her body clenched around his hardness. He caressed her sides, then gripped her shell where it curved inward at her waist and shoved himself as deeply as he could into her, eliciting a silent scream from her, her neck arching backward. Seeing the pleasure he brought her was enough to push him over the brink, and he spilled into her with a choked, soundless groan. She was left gasping as he retracted from her.

“There, now,” he panted. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson.”

“I don’t know… I may need a reminder tomorrow,” she teased, not moving from her position on the floor of the platform.

“Woman, you are insatiable!” he jabbed back. He fiddled with the foil packet April had brought him, pulling out three slices of pizza. “Looks like the Michelangelo special of the day is gummi bears, chocolate chip and calamari…”

“No one ever explained the limitations of what should go on pizza to Mikey, did they?”

“Don’t be ridiculous… “ he replied with his mouth full. “You can put anything on pizza.”

April sighed. “That’s kind of my point…” She picked up her phone and checked the time. “I guess we’d better get back… almost time for training.”

 

Leo came out of his meditation. He didn’t like what he’d thought about, but it was clear he needed to confront Donatello with it. He stood and exited his room. He peered into Don’s lab, peeked into the kitchen in case anyone was there, checked the dojo space. Raph and Mikey occupied the floor in front of the TV, playing a fighting game.

“Anybody seen Donnie?”

Mikey answered innocently, “He’s probably off showing April his staff.” Then he cracked an impish grin.

Leo stared at him, then glared at Raph. “You told him to say that,” he said, at the same time Raphael said, “I did not tell him to say that.”

 

The lair was uncommonly calm as they entered. Raphael was pummeling the punching bag in the training area. Michelangelo lay on the floor, engrossed in a comic book. Leonardo seemed to be meditating by the steps of the entrance, but stood as Don and April arrived. “Hey, Leo,” Donnie greeted, knowing by Leo’s look that he had something to say.

“Hi, guys, glad you’re back. Donnie, can I talk to you for a moment?”

 _Hoo boy…_ he thought. If Leo wanted to talk about something, it was bound to be bad news. “Sure, Leo,” he nodded. “April, d’you…” he started, but she was already walking off with a backwards wave toward them. He smirked, watching her go.

Leo motioned to him as he passed the turnstiles. “C’mon…”

April headed down to the benches and opened her book, squeezing in a little actual homework before training began. Mikey looked up from his comics to give her a sedate grin. “Hey, April.”

“Hey, Mikey,” she grinned back.

He tilted his head toward the gates Donnie and Leo had just left through. “Donnie’s my best bro,” he said kindly. “It’s good seeing him happy. I’m glad you guys can finally be together.”

April smiled broadly. “Thanks, Mikey.”

 

“Okay, what is it?” Donnie pressed, once they were clear of the lair’s entrance.

Leo sighed. Whatever it was, he really didn’t want to say it, but knew he had to. “Have you noticed April acting a little… weird?”

“Weird how?”

“Like…” He shrugged and sighed. “…aggressive. Sexually.”

Donnie’s eyes went wide. “WHAT?!” He stabbed a finger at Leo’s chest. “Are you just being jealous of us? Finally, fate deals us a good hand and we’re able to be together, and you can’t stand letting us have that? Or that there’s not enough turtle-girls to go around, so no one’s allowed to have her, is that it?”

“No. _Listen._ We’ve been treating April’s mutation like it was completely stable—“

“—Which it is!”

“We don’t know that for sure! The electrified mutagen was made from the same basic mutagen the Kraang have always used, and we know that’s unstable. And just about every mutation we’ve seen has gone crazy aggressive on us… Think about it… Spider-Bytez, Leatherhead, Dr. Rockwell, the Rat King, Timothy…”

Donnie looked away. “…Timothy.” Leo had struck to the heart with that one. Despite the fact that the idiot only had himself to blame for everything he had done to himself, Donnie still felt the guilt of failed responsibility for the kid.

“Even Sir Malachi wanted to keep us in his game forever…” Leo pointed out. “And most of them were aggressive from the start… Rahzar, Fish Face, Bugster Dorkman… It took Snakeweed a couple weeks to completely lose his humanity and start trying to be a cannibal…”

Donnie mulled this over. “What about us, though? What about Master Splinter?”

Leo gave him a flat look. “We’re ninjas. We hit stuff every day, and we discipline ourselves to keep our aggression under control… er, except Raph. Master Splinter was already a ninjutsu master when he was transformed, and he trained us basically since the day we mutated. But April… She’s got a fraction of the experience we have. I don’t think she has the restraint she would if she was… normal.”

“But she’s not aggressive! She’s still sweet, wonderful April.”

“Look, I’m not the science nerd you are, but I have seen some nature shows, and there’s some fairly universal gender roles at play: the males fight for territory or mates, and the females produce and raise the young.”

Donatello looked floored. “No. NO. I am absolutely not believing you!”

“Donnie… She’s been here two weeks. How many times have you had sex with her?”

“That… is…” He wracked his brain. “…none of your business!” he decided stubbornly.

“Come on, Donnie…” Leo pressed. “How about the past week… is it more or less than you can count on both hands? How about since Monday?”

Donnie pointed at him again furiously. “You are really crossing the line here, Leo!”

“ _How many?!”_

“ _Five!”_ he shouted back. “Okay?!”

Leo was taken aback at the response. He did some mental processing, then checked, “In three days?” He sounded rather impressed.

“Why are you so jealous of us? Oh, wait, I know, it’s because you and —“

“Don’t you bring her into this! She has no part in this discussion.”

“Oh, really? Because I thought that as long as we were talking about aggressive mutant girlfriends—“

“It is not the same situation with us and you know it!”

“Then why are you trying to cockblock me?!”

Leo breathed in calmly. “I’m not out to cockblock you. I just don’t want you to be the last to know.”

Something clicked in Donnie’s head. Leo’s point had made it through. He calmed, even looked a bit guilty. “Fine,” he said at length.

“Are you gonna believe me now?”

Don didn’t look at him. “I’ll… take it under consideration.”   Pensively, he headed back into the lair.

 

Three days later, Donnie trotted down the steps and over to where April was doing her homework on one of the benches in front of the TV. He nibbled her neck playfully. “Donnie!” she shrieked and swatted at him.

“It’s done!” he announced gleefully.

“It’s done?” she asked to verify, as though she couldn’t believe the good news. A joyous smile spread over her face, and she threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, Donnie!”

He picked her up, swinging her over the back of the bench. “You wanna come test it out with me?”

“Hell yes, I do!” she bounced.

“C’mon…” He pulled her by the hand to his lab area and took a flask of mutagen out of the mini fridge there. He opened it carefully and transferred the contents to another similar container, but this one had a metal bar set into the middle. “This is to conduct the electricity directly through the cylinder,” Don explained. “I want it to go directly into the mutagen, not just bounce from one cap to the other.” He sealed the container and grasped her hand again. “Let’s go!” The two of them bounded out, running down the corridor.

Donatello guided April up onto the platform and onto a rubber mat. He flipped a switch and the motor whirred to life. “Stay here on the mat so you’re grounded. I’ll have you turn the voltage up if we need to give it more juice.”

“Right,” she nodded.

Donnie took his place on another grounded mat and affixed the mutagen to the end of a long pole with a metal end. This was wired to the machine, which was beginning to produce small pops of static. He pulled his goggles down over his eyes. “Ready?” he asked. April nodded. Donnie held the mutagen-tipped wand toward the metal dome. There was a loud CRACK as the static charge jumped from the dome to the canister. He retracted the wand and examined the mutagen. No change. He tsked.

“Turn it up to 20,000 volts,” he called to April. She twisted the dial and the generator’s motor whirred faster. Once more, he held the wand out, and the electrons jumped to it with a loud snap. He pulled the mutagen back again and looked at it. Nothing.

“30,000!” he hollered over the motor. April adjusted the dial again and gave him a thumbs up. He waited for the little static crackles to ramp up, and extended the wand again. Zap. Nothing. He shook his head, dismayed and becoming impatient.

“Go ahead and give her all she’s got,” he called. April twisted the dial all the way to the 50,000 volt marker. Donnie held the rod out, and the small lightning bolt struck the container. Surely now… Please…

The mutagen stubbornly remained its usual glowing bluish green. He groaned in disappointment. “Dammit…”

April shut the machine off and walked solemnly to his side as he sat down on the platform’s edge. He pulled off his goggles and tossed them over his head at the disappointingly insufficient Van de Graaff. “So… what happens now? Can we build a bigger one?” she asked.

Donatello shook his head. I don’t think we’ll be able to find a motor much better than the one we’ve got, and even if we did, maybe we could push it up to seventy or a hundred thousand volts… but a bolt of lightning can be upward of five million. I was hoping a small charge would be enough, but…” He gave an exasperated sigh.

She pulled him toward her, stroking his head. “It’s all right,” she said sadly. “I’m sorry it didn’t work… We’ll find another way.” She gazed softly into his eyes, and they felt their synergy kicking in. _To be honest, I don’t mind waiting,_ she thought, _as long as I have you._

 

The two of them were still deep in their synchronized state as they came back to the lair. Their surprise, synergy aside, was the same at hearing a familiar voice. “Casey Jones shoots the ramp! He scores! High score defeated, Raph!”

Raphael swung his shell into the machine and game locked up as the TILT lights flashed. “Oops,” he grinned as Casey’s ball went down the drain.

“Hey! You are such a poor sport…”

“ _Casey!”_ they said as one, not even aware of doing it, though April’s voice was enthusiastic, and Donnie’s slightly bitter. “ _What’re you doing here?_ ”

Donnie felt his emotions of distaste for his rival clash with those of April’s attraction for him. He could also feel her shooting him a mental dirty look for thinking badly of him. He wished that they hadn’t been connected at the moment.

Casey whirled and backed into the pinball machine, flinching at the weird duality of their speech. “What the hell!?”

Raph rolled his eyes. “Aw, great… they’re doing their creep-o ‘Shining’ routine again… Seriously, would you guys knock it off with the stereo shit?!”

“ _Oh, sorry… give us just a second…”_

They went through the steps of disconnecting themselves quicker than they intended. Donnie felt like he and April had torn apart, shredding part of his brain. He grabbed his head at the sudden pain and vertigo. “Ow… damn, bad idea…” April appeared to be going through similarly rough withdrawals, sitting down on the steps and rubbing her temples.

“Are you guys okay?” Leo rose to steady his brother. Mikey, splayed out on the floor in front of the TV, kept his place but looked up in concern.

April grimaced at him. “Been better…shouldn’t’ve rushed coming out…”

“What was that, some weird ninja-Jedi mind-control trick?” Casey queried, seating himself beside April, rubbing her shoulders in an effort to alleviate some of her pain.

“It’s this ‘synergy’ thing they’ve figured out how to do, where they share thoughts or something,” Leo explained.

Casey shot a sidelong glare at Donnie. Don gave him a smug grin in return. “Yeah… I really know how to get into a girl’s head,” he said with a lopsided smile, then went back to trying to suppress the lances of agony shooting through his skull. “Really botched it on the dismount, though…”

“How’d the test go?” Leo asked, trying to give Donnie something else to focus on.

Donnie winced, looking at him out of one eye, a hand over the other, and shook his head very slightly. “Nothing short of a lightning bolt is going to alter the mutagen, I’m afraid…”

Casey’s eyes widened. “Does that mean you’re not going to be able to fix April?”

“No,” Donnie declared with certainty, and a breath of relief as the shooting pain began to clear. “It _does_ mean that she may have a very long time to wait until I can find a way to duplicate the ionized mutagen..”

Mikey interrupted from his place on the floor in front of the TV. “Guys, look! TCRI’s on the news!” Sure enough, the TV showed a still of the TCRI tower being struck by lightning.

“Turn it up!” Donnie demanded.

“…was captured by one of our viewers during the last major storm. The TCRI radio tower has been struck a record 821 times since its construction in 2003, almost as if Mother Nature herself has a beef against the building. But as for us lowly humans, we’re glad to have TCRI taking all the hits for us and grounding all those lightning strikes. There’s another big thunderstorm heading in this weekend, so here’s your chance to potentially take a great shot like this one, weather-watchers and photo buffs! Temperatures will be in the high 80s through Thursday at least and humidity will be high, with a high chance of major storms throughout the week… Better remember to roll up those windows and bring your umbrella!...”

Donnie’s eyes moved across the image on the screen. “I’m getting a really bad idea…” he said, stopping to think it all the way through. “Yep, this is definitely a really, really bad idea.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I had Physics in high school... I had to re-educate myself on how electricity works. Not totally sure if I've got everything right, but as far as verisimilitude goes, this is close enough for me.
> 
> Don't play with lightning, kids.


	6. Fly On The Wall

Chapter 6 – Fly On the Wall

By 4:00, the sky was black. By 6:30, the wind was whipping, light rain was already pelting the ground and buildings. The occasional distant roll of thunder could be heard, and lightning flashed frequently, only partly concealed by the thick, full clouds. It was going to be a hell of a storm.

Batxter sucked digestive juice off the garbage he was eating. He thought it might have been rotting cabbage. It didn’t really matter… if it stank, he wanted to eat it.

What a horrible existence his life had come to. All he had ever wanted was to be recognized in the scientific community for his work in robotics… he thought he might have had a chance once he allied with Shredder… (well, got pulled into an alliance… or servitude…) but then he was showed up in his own field by the Kraang, and that just wasn’t fair. Still, Shredder seemed to believe that one field of science was the same as the next, and kept him on to experiment with mutagen. Sure, his scientific background included biological studies, and the rest, he could bluff. Or… he thought he could. His performance wasn’t to the ninja master’s frankly unrealistic, even insane standards, and as punishment….

And the mocking… all his life, the mocking! Bullies on the playground, teasing him for being a nerd; colleagues at his job, laughing at all he did… and were his mousers that useless when the giant plague of rats swept the city? No! After all, wasn’t that what the demand was for these days? Kill-less traps that would just relocate the rats outside of the city… No, it was never enough for people. You stole a coworker’s findings one time… people just couldn’t get over that. And then he had to deal with those smug bastards Bradford and Xever, and he was back on the playground, facing the bullies all over again, nearly as powerless, and an ugly mutant fly to boot. Even those hideous freak turtles paid him no respect…

His research was just going in circles. He’d lost his entire lab and all his research in the fire, and Shredder was certainly less than pleased about that. Though honestly, if he hadn’t been in such a hurry with his vengeance, his daughter might have come out of it better, poor thing. Now she was just another mutant freak like the rest of them. And if he would risk his own daughter—had risked her, and lost her—well, the rest of their lives may as well have been forfeit. Shredder was just a first-class asshole… If Baxter wasn’t afraid of what Shredder would do to him if he left—because he _would_ track him down if he left, he was sure—he’d have been long gone. As it was, the man was Baxter’s only connection to obtaining more mutagen, and he needed that if he was ever going to develop a retro-mutagen. The turtles had done it… so could he, eventually. He was sure of it… He would revert himself, maybe even mutate himself into the bigger, stronger man he dreamed of being. And then he’d grab those turtles and stuff _them_ in a dumpster… like the one he was sitting on. Revenge would be sweet… sweet as this rotting cabbage.

He’d gone out to avoid Bradford’s needling for the night. The storm was coming soon, but he didn’t care… getting wet was better than being insulted or threatened. Last night, Bradford told him he might have to get a giant swatter to get rid of his ugly self once and for all. As if _he_ was likely to win any beauty contests with half his skin peeled off… Nonetheless, he didn’t want to be so soaked that his wings wouldn’t function; he would have to go soon…

And then he caught sight of them, five shapes (five?) leaping over the rooftops. They looked to be heading for the TCRI tower. Good. Either they would get themselves deshelled by the Kraang, or they’d destroy some of the Kraang’s empire. Maybe Shredder would appreciate Baxter’s efforts a little more if the Kraang weren’t supplying him with a continual supply of high-functioning ninja robots. Shredder would want the news, however it ended, so Baxter took to his wings and followed, keeping to the shadows wherever he could.

The turtles stopped on a building across from the TCRI skyscraper. Baxter flitted to the side of it, unnoticed, and clung to the sheer wall, listening in.

“Why aren’t we using the gliders?” said a rough voice, which Baxter recognized as the voice of the one with the red mask.

“Because I’d rather just the mutagen get struck by lightning and not one of us,” snapped the tall gap-toothed one. “The suction cup grips are our best bet not to get noticed and get up to the top.”

Mutagen! They were trying to pass lightning through mutagen, then… Why didn’t they just use a Van de Graaff generator? Clearly, their intellect was not on the same level his was!

“And we all have to come because…?”

“…Because if we _are_ noticed, I’m gonna need some backup. The last thing I want to have to deal with while I’m rigging up the lightning rod is to have to fight a hundred Kraang robots,” the tall one came back at the one in the yellow mask.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this…” came a female voice. “I don’t have the arm strength you guys do.” He recognized it… the girl! The one he’d tried to merge with in the mutagen! The only one who ever got his name right, incidentally… But she had fallen in and hadn’t mutated… so how had they mutated her into one of them? _A super-mutagen might have done it…_ he thought. After all, the turtles had developed a retro-mutagen, so who knew how else they had managed to manipulate it? And here they were, looking to pass lightning through mutagen… perhaps to produce more super-mutagen, or retro-mutagen… or another sort? No matter… That could be useful… The turtles were doing all the work, and they had no flying equipment with them! All he had to do was lie in wait and swipe it from them when the time was right. Oh, revenge… beautiful, beautiful revenge….

“It’s okay, April… “ That was the one in the blue mask, with the swords. “We can use someone down here to keep an eye out for Kraang activity while we go watch Donnie play Ben Franklin.”

Baxter had heard all he needed to know. He scuttled down the building and flitted to the next, where he concealed himself beneath a balcony to keep out of the rain and wait. It was going to be a good night after all.

 

As the turtles swung over to TCRI, April looked about, then over the back side of the building, responding to a feeling they were being watched. She thought she pinpointed it to this spot, but no one was there. The sensation mostly left her, but she still felt uneasy. Patrolling rooftop to rooftop around the TCRI building yielded nothing. She went back to watching the turtles scaling the glass-sided building. “Stay safe, guys…” she whispered to herself. “Something’s up…”

 

Rain was sheeting down by the time the turtles made it to the peak of the tower, and it was proving to be a hazard for the suction-cup climbers, which tended to slide when placed. Nevertheless, they eventually made it to the tiny roof of the giant TCRI tower. It was so narrow at the top, in fact, that had April chanced coming with them, they would have been shell to shell if they were all standing in a row. There was one roof-access door, which meant only one direction of attack if the Kraang discovered them, but also meant they would be sitting ducks, as there was nowhere to dodge to. Raphael wedged one of his sai under the door as a precaution.

Donnie pulled the satchel off his back and dug into it. “Put these on,” he instructed his brothers, passing noise-canceling headphones back to them.

“Nice! Tunes!” Mikey said as he put his on, then looked dismayed as no music came through them. “How do you turn them on?”

“Those aren’t for music, Mikey… they’re ear protection,” Leo tried to explain.

Michelangelo gave him a confused look, “WHAT, LEO? I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” he hollered back. Leo rolled his eyes and made a “Shush!” gesture at him.

“Would this be a good time to point out that turtles don’t have ears?” Raph smirked, putting his set on.

“They’re internal, but we definitely have them, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to hear me at all…”

“You say something, Leo?” Raph said, headphones already on. Leo looked back at him in annoyance and snorted.

Don examined the points of the tower. It did not comfort him that the dual peaks looked like a giant taser. Lightning flashed nearby, and he flinched as the thunder came almost directly afterward. He found the copper rod that stuck up about a foot above the rest of the tower and climbed further up to reach it. He pulled two large containers of mutagen—which looked like five of the regular canisters melded together (because, in fact, they were)—out of his bag and affixed them to the pole with wire. Then he added the repurposed end of the wand from the Van de Graaff generator. He nodded at his work and slid back down to the narrow rooftop. All they could do now was wait…

…and, apparently, hold off the Kraang. Raph had his shell to the door, around the edges of which a pink alarm light flashed. Nothing could ever be easy, could it? The door bucked. Raph’s expression changed to a slightly panicked one. Leo joined him in holding the door fast. Mikey faced the door, readying for the onslaught. Donnie drew his bo, then looked anxiously up at the lightning rod. _Come on… come on!_

The two turtles holding the door suddenly pulled away from it. Raph mouth shaped the words, “They’re melting the door!” at Donnie and retrieved his sai from under the door, facing the Kraang droids as the door fell apart.

The leading Kraang robot stopped to assess the situation as it stepped through the melted remains of the door. It got so far as to say, “The ones who are in this—“ before Raph hooked it with his sai and threw it over the side of the building. Leonardo stabbed his katanas through the next and did the same.   Mikey ducked and lifted the next one over his shoulders, tossing it off the roof as more bots appeared at the melted doorframe. The turtles dodged and blocked as a volley of pink laser-fire came at them. Raphel’s sai took the droid’s head off, then he used its body as a shield, shoving several bots down the stairwell in a heap.

Donnie felt a slight prickling on his skin seconds before the lightning bolt speared down from the clouds behind him. He wasn’t sure if the noise-canceling headphones did anything; he could feel the deafening blast of thunder vibrate all the way through to his bones. With the others keeping the Kraang at bay, he risked climbing back up the tower-peak. “Yes!” he shouted. There was the mutagen, glowing an unearthly pinkish-white. He reached for the first of his modified containers, burning a finger on it as he touched it. He shook his hand and put his burnt finger in his mouth. _Of course it’s hot, you idiot…_ Rain sizzled as it hit the surface; Donnie chided himself for not noticing that first. He pulled his mask off and wrapped it around the rod several times to be able to get a grip on the hot metal. Grip secured, he pulled the mutagen free of the original lightning rod and levered it into his satchel, which he swung up over his shoulder as he climbed back down.

“Got it, let’s go!” he yelled, realizing a moment later that no one had heard him due to the ear protection.

The Kraang were having a hard time of the fight, now attempting to shoot through a wall built of their fallen fellows. Their shots, for the most part were unable to penetrate the mass, held in place by Don’s three brothers. He knocked on Mikey’s shell and motioned over the edge of the building. Mikey gave him a thumbs-up and waved down Leo and Raph.

Donnie looked over the edge, preparing to place his suction grips. A pink bolt missed his face by inches. “Oh, COME ON!” he moaned. His T-phone buzzed. He pulled his headphones off and pulled the phone from his belt. “April?” he answered.

“The Kraang are coming outside and aiming weapons at the top of the building,” she informed him.

“That hadn’t escaped our notice,” he grumbled back wryly. “We’ve got the mutagen and we’re about to head down… can you create a diversion for us?”

“Already on it… one Kraang mind-blast, coming up!”

Donnie knew better than to try to stop her; her mind was made up. So instead of trying to talk her out of joining the fight, he just told her, “Be careful.”

He sniffed, and wrinkled his nose. There was an acrid, burnt smell around the tower, the source of which he couldn’t determine. It wasn’t the most important thing on his mind anyway. Their climb down was going to have to be fast, but too fast, and they’d end up street-pizza… They’d be cutting it close, even with April knocking the Kraang out.

 

April leapt down from her rooftop vantage point, tucking into a roll on landing. She made a direct run for the TCRI entrance. The Kraang had no time to reassess their target as she reached the center of the lobby. The generic secretary-bot approached her, announcing in a friendly voice, “The TCRI building is now closed,” but before she could threaten or aim an elbow-laser, April concentrated her energies and set off a devastating blast of her power, knocking out all the Kraang in the area and several floors up. Task accomplished, she headed back outside… and picked up that weird feeling again…

 

Descending the rain-soaked glass tower was treacherous. At times, gravity seemed to want to help a little too much, and one of them would lose their footing or slide partway down.

“Still glad we didn’t bring the gliders, Donnie?” Raph snapped as he skidded several feet.

Another bolt of lightning crashed down at the tower.

“Yep,” he replied simply.

Raph recanted. “Okay, gotta give you that one…”

Something black flitted past them. Leo caught it out of the corner of his eye. “Did you guys see that?

“I’m having a hard enough time seeing what I’m doing in all this frickin’—“

“Shh!” Leo demanded, peering around them.

Despite the rain, Baxter was fast on the wing. He made a beeline-dive for Donatello, seizing the carry strap of the bag. “Mine now!” he cried triumphantly.

Donatello lost one of his suction grips as his shoulder was yanked away from the building. He let out a yelp as he was nearly pulled off the building entirely, followed by an enraged scream as Stockman buzzed away, cackling. “NO, dammit!”

April couldn’t see what was going on through the rain and dark, but pulled out her fan, aimed where her instinct told her to, and threw the little spinning blade. It hit its mark, and April caught it on its return trajectory, again on instinct. Baxter let out a screech and spiraled downward.

Donnie’s heart leapt as the fly-man fell out of the sky, along with their hard-fought, glass-encased prize. He took a chance and let his remaining grips slide down the wet building at a breakneck speed in a bid to catch the thief. All of them paused breathlessly as Baxter plummeted, splashing down into a fountain. The water hissed as the hot metal hit it, throwing up a cloud of steam. April was running for him, eyes glinting in the dark. He clambered over the rim, soaked, and hauled the stolen mutagen out after him, and was on the run before she even caught sight of him. She made it to the fountain in short order, throwing her hands up at finding nothing there. Donnie skidded up to her moments later, followed shortly by the others. “Where did he go?! Is the mutagen okay?!”

“He got away… looked like the containers made it intact, though.” She kicked a puddle.

Donatello took April in his arms. “It’s all right… we’ll get it back, or we’ll make more.”

“Ohhh no,” Raph declared loudly. “We are NOT gong back up on that thing again!”

The rain began to let up to a mere sprinkle at last.

April leaned into Donnie for comfort, then gasped. “You’re hurt!”

Donnie looked confused. “No, I’m not… Just burned my finger a bit… It was stupid…”

“Your shell! There’s a big burn mark on it!”

“What?!” He struggled to turn far enough to see what was on his shell, but couldn’t.

“Damn, Don, she’s right… you got branded!” Raph confirmed, poking at his brother’s burnt shell.

Mikey turned him for a look as well.  “Oh, man… that is not just gonna buff out with a little Turtle Wax…”

“You know, it almost looks like the crest of the Hamato clan…” Leo offered. “Five circles in a ring around another circle…”

Donnie snapped his fingers. “The containers! They were hot! They must’ve burnt right through the canvas! It’s ironic, but if Baxter hadn’t have snatched the bag from me, they might’ve fallen out.”

April tapped on the burnt spot again. “You really didn’t feel this at all?”

“No,” he smiled at her. “Turtles’ shells are made of keratin, like your hair or fingernails. There’s no nerves in them. In fact, over time, this will just slough off.”

“I want one!” Mikey beamed. “I’d get, like, a dragon, or an awesome tribal design…”

“I could just draw one on you with a magic marker,” Raph volunteered.

Mikey glowered at him. “Ohhh, no you don’t. Fool me once, shame on you… Fool me four times, shame on me. It took me forever to scrub ‘Moronangelo’ off from last time…”

Leo walked around the fountain pensively. He bent to examine something on the ground. “April, when you threw your fan back there, did you hit Dexter?”

She thought for a moment. “Yes, I think so!”

“Then I think I’ve got a trail here. Quick, before it washes away!”

The five of them fanned out, following the traces of yellow liquid. “What _is_ this stuff?” Mikey asked. “Is he leaking antifreeze or something?”

“It’s ichor,” Don informed him. “It’s essentially what bugs have in place of blood.” Mikey jumped away from the bit he was about to touch with a grossed-out look.

Luckily for them, the fly-mutant hadn’t taken to the sky as he fled, and April’s tessen had struck deep… Baxter had lost ichor halfway across the city. The last of the trail led to the back door of a dilapidated, though still majestic, old opera house, done up in art-deco high style. It boasted a now-defunct neon sign, reading, “Orpheum”, and another on a surrounding chain-link fence: SLATED FOR DEMOLITION 12/2013. Part of the fence had fallen in on itself or had been knocked down… apparently even the demolition crew had given up on the building.

“Is this where old Metal-face is holing up now?” Raph queried.

“It does suit his taste for grandeur,” Donnie noted. “Now that I think about it, Shredder is quite the prima donna…”

April slapped her hands on her face as she started giggling at the thought of Shredder in a tutu. Leonardo motioned for silence and opened the door a crack. The deep, booming laugh of Rahzar issued through it, followed by the angered rumble of Tiger Claw: “You would cheat _me_ at cards, fish?!”

Leo eased the door closed again. “Let’s go …”

Donatello looked a bit miffed. “We’re not going in after him now?”

“We’ll come back tomorrow. We’re too worn down from the climbing, and the fight, and running after Baxter. If we have to face Shredder’s Foot robots and the rest of his zoo, and him, possibly, I’d rather do it on a full tank. I’m willing to sacrifice some of the element of surprise for that.”

Donnie gave him a hard stare, but acquiesced. He just wondered how much of their mutagen Baxter would waste or ruin over the course of a day.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TMNT 2012's Baxter Stockman is so much of a picked-on nerd, I feel sorry for him... up until he starts being a jerk and _deserves_ to get whacked for it.
> 
> Why are Shredder's mutants holing up at an opera house? Be sure to read OHAS: Queen Takes Rook, the companion piece to this story. (Long story short, it's because I got every building in the series confused and had to write myself out of a corner. ;p )


	7. Stage Fright

 

               Chapter 7 – Stage Fright

 

Casey ambled through the turnstiles with his usual swagger. “Hold your applause, I know I’m awesome,” he announced, quieting an imaginary crowd and flinging himself onto the tire swing. “So, did you get it?”

April looked up at him from tapping away on Donnie’s laptop and sighed. “We did… then Baxter stole it from us.”

“Aw, you’re kidding me! Fly-face is goin’ down for that.” He drew his goalkeeping stick from his back. “Whaddya think, should I stencil his name on this one so he knows what’s coming?” April gave him a wry giggle. He put the hockey stick away and drew his baseball bat instead. “Or this one… see if I can hit a _pop-fly_.”

April rolled her eyes and gave him an exasperated sigh at the pun.

“So? When do I get my chance?”

“We’re going in tonight,” Leo informed him, walking over from training, followed by the rest of his brothers. “Should be a stealth mission… just retrieve the mutagen and get out.”

“Count me in,” Casey grinned.

Don glared. “YOU’RE not going!”

“Oh yeah?? Try and stop me!”

“Are you kidding me?! You’re about as stealthy as Mikey on a sugar rush!” Donnie yelled, to which Michelangelo, behind him, responded indignantly with his hands on his hips.

“I’m right here, you know…”

Casey and Donatello stared each other down, Don gritting his teeth, and Casey gritting what teeth he still had. Leo pushed them apart when they got too close. “Enough! We’re probably going to need all the help we can get on this mission… If things go wrong, we might be facing Foot-bots, Shredder and his whole gang of mutants. Casey can hold his own in a fight. Even so, Casey, we want to try to avoid as many enemies as we can, got it? Don’t go picking fights. And however good you think you are, stay the hell away from Shredder. You’re no match for him… All four of us together couldn’t beat him.”

“Hah!” Casey returned Donnie’s earlier smug grin. Donnie bristled. April rolled her eyes at them both. “Calling dibs on Tiger Claw,” Casey said. “I’ve got a special little surprise for that cat, in case he wants a grudge match…”

April turned the laptop around to face the group. “I found some blueprints of the old Orpheum. There’s a dozen dressing rooms in the underground levels on either side… I figure Baxter is probably holed up in one of those, but we’d have to check them all to know.”

“The rest of the place looks like a ninja’s playground,” Leo observed, pointing to various aspects of the layout. “Balcony boxes, catwalks, trapdoors on the stage, and otherwise, lots of open space…”

“Well, one thing’s for sure,” Mikey stood and declared. “We’re going into battle, and we need proper nourishment beforehand!” He leapt up onto the bench and struck a dramatic pointing pose. “To Murokami’s!!”

“YEAH!” shouted Donnie and Raph. April and Casey joined them in jumping up and heading for the exit.

“Hold it!” Leo yelled, stopping them in their tracks. “We’re not done here! We need to work out the details...”

“Come on, Leo… we can talk details while we eat!” Raph said convincingly.

“We could put it to a vote,” Casey determined. “Everyone for going out?” Five hands immediately shot in the air. “Majority rules, let’s go.”

“Guys! Can’t you be serious about this for one—“ Leo started, but was interrupted by his own growling stomach. He sighed and strode after the group. “Screw it…”

 

Casey leaned against the corner of the building until the couple at the restaurant finally vacated. He peered inside to double check, then waved an all-clear to the turtles on the rooftop of the facing building.

The five of them swung across the road on grappling hooks and entered the noodle shop. “Hey, Murokami-san!” Mikey called in greeting as they came in and seated themselves.

The blind shop owner turned toward the sound. “Ah, my turtle friends! Welcome! And a young man as well. But do my ears betray me, or do I hear another turtle with you, with a lighter tread?”

April sighed. “It’s me, Murokami-san. Hopefully only temporarily.”

The blind man gasped. “April-chan! I did not recognize you! You must have done something new with your hair.”

April gave and odd laugh at the deja-vu of the comment. “Is this a standard Japanese joke or something?”

Mr. Murokami gave her a smile, but didn’t answer her. “Your usual pizza gyoza, my friends?”

“Better make it a triple order,” Raph decided for them. “Heading into battle...”

“Like I told Casey, Raph, we want to use stealth as much as we can. If all goes well, we can retrieve the mutagen without fighting anyone,” Leo lectured.

“Yeah, but, Leo, when are we ever that lucky?”

 

As the group was leaving Murokami’s, Leo paused, perceiving someone watching them… or himself in specific. He looked over his shoulder at the roof of a nearby apartment building. April picked up on it as well, and pointed with her eyes to a patch of deep shadow on the side of the building.

“Something up, Leo?” Raph asked.

Leonardo looked back to him. “Uh… No, it’s nothing. You guys go on ahead… I’ll be along in a minute.”

“Oh, _that_ kind of nothing,” Donnie smirked. He turned back around, draping an arm over April’s shell as they made off in the direction of the Orpheum. “Give ‘nothing’ our regards.”

Once the others had disappeared, Leo climbed the fire escape of the building. “Karai?” he called cautiously.

“Leeeoooo…” her voice returned, oddly drawing his name out. She slipped out of the shadows April had pointed out. Even her human movements had acquired a serpentine aspect to them, betraying her mutation. Leo gave her a smile, which quickly turned to a grimace as she stabbed a long sword at him. He blocked with his own katanas, backflipping to evade her strikes as she came at him full-force. He bent backward on her next forward stab, sheathing his swords and catching hers between his palms.

“You know, most people just say hello as a greeting,” he said in a casual tone.

“Mossst people are boring aszz hell,” she replied with an amused smile, letting him up. “I havvven’t ssseeen you in a while. I ssstarted to thhhink maybe you fffound anothher sssnake-girl to hang around withhh. And I’vvve been dying to shhhow you my new toy…” She turned her falchion around so it glinted in the dusk light.

“Yeah, sorry… things have been a little… hectic. So who’d you steal this off of?” he enquired with a note of disapproval.

“It’sss Bradford’sss,” she said. “I raided hiszz dojo. Nothing he’ll misssss in hiszz sstate, but the pawn keepsss me fffed… thhhough thhey do mock me at thhe pawn shhhop ffor thisss sssssstupid ssspeech impediment,” she spat.

“That doesn’t sound like something you’d put up with,” he pointed out.

“We’vvve come to an agreement,” she said, sheathing the falchion. “Thhey buy my ssstuff, and I don’t ssslicsse thhem to ribbonsss withh it.” With a groan, she dropped her human guise. She hissed in annoyance. “I can ssstill only hold it fffor ssso long…”

Leo sighed, neither fazed nor distracted by the change of her form. “You know how I feel about you stealing to get along.”

Karai snorted. “Like you don’t… you can’t convvinssse me enough money ffallsss down the gratesss to buy all the pizzssa you guyszz eat.”

“We have… resources,” he said guardedly. “We have enough to get by.   You could still come back to live with us, with your real father… I know Splinter would be glad to have you back. Granted, it might be a little crowded, with April living in with us too…”

“I sssaw, sshhe’s a turtle. Ssssome girlsss havvve all thhe luck,” she snorted, turning her head away from Leo and looking off over the rooftops. “I can’t go back withhh you… not ssso long aszzz I’m sssstill a mutant. I won’t risssk killing my real fffather like Shhredder wanted.” She stared out at the New York skyline.   “I wonder what it would havve been like, growing up withhh lovvvve…“ Her expression hardened as she stared at the burnt clock of Shredder’s former headquarters. Tipped inwards, it threatened to fall into the burnt-out shell of the ruined tower. “Now, all I havvve iss vvvengeansse.”

“Vengeance is all Shredder has as well…” he told her. “He’s let it fester inside him for years, to the point where there is no room inside him for anything else, not even love for a daughter.” He took her by the shoulders. “Please… please don’t follow him down that path.”

“I’ll… I’ll try not to. Being like him iszz really thhe lasssst thhing I want. But I will take hiszz empire down and regain my honor…”

Leo turned away, debating whether or not to invite her on their mission, given what he’d just asked of her. He turned back, a question formed on his lips, but she was gone. That settled it for him, then. And that was a ninja for you… He bounded over the rooftops in the direction the others had gone.

 

The lock of the back door wasn’t hard to pick, particularly due to being the ancient kind that would be opened with an old-fashioned skeleton key. The tricky part was opening the door without it creaking on its likewise old, rusty hinges. Leo silently motioned Raph and Mikey after himself toward the far half of the hall of dressing rooms and Donnie, April and Casey toward the other half. The electricity was on, supplied by the generator outside the rear of the dilapidated theater house, though there seemed to be few working lights in the corridors; what there were barely shone through a thick blanket of dust on bulbs as aged and neglected as the building itself.

Light outlined one door in the corridor Don, April and Casey were checking; they would check that one last, as it was clearly occupied. Moving methodically, they checked first the door on one side, then the opposite. The first three doors revealed nothing. As they opened the fourth, they heard a labored breath, and saw a puddle of something yellow-brown, and a tennis shoe beyond the door. Donnie somersaulted into the room, drawing his bo and aiming it to strike the fly mutant, who lay on the floor amidst the scattered contents of a first aid kit. Gauze strips were unrolled everywhere on the floor.

He couldn’t tell if Baxter was looking at him or not with those multiple eyes, but a slight movement of his head indicated that the fly man acknowledged his presence. Baxter made no further attempts to move, except to emit a buzzing groan.

April and Casey entered the room after him and shut the door soundlessly.

“I zzsurrender…” he whispered. “…can’t fight...”

“Where’s the mutagen?” Don growled lowly, his eyes gleaming white in the low light. Then the light flicked on, making him wince.

“Casey!” April hissed at him. Casey shrugged at her, palms up, somewhat apologetically. She got a look at the wound on Baxter’s upturned side and she gasped. It was deep, and oozing more ichor to join the puddle on the floor. Judging by the clumsily wadded bandages sticking to the top of the gash, Baxter had tried to care for the wound himself, but failed at it, either due to weakness from the injury itself or the ineptitude of his fly-like pincer-hands.

“The mutagen! Where is it?!” Donnie demanded again. April, meanwhile, bent down, collecting the unwound gauze from the floor and rooting through the spilled contents of the medical kit. “What are you doing?!” Donnie whispered at her, unbelieving.

“He’s hurt, and he can’t do this himself.” She dropped to her knees beside the wounded mutant.

“So what?!” Casey interjected. “He’s a conniving little thief! He deserves exactly what he got!”

April pressed a wad of cotton batting to Baxter’s wound. “I did this to him. Now I’m gonna fix it,” she said back resolutely. “Help me sit him up.”

Donatello gaped. “April, really??”

“Look, this is a seriously bad wound. It’s not like he can just go to the mutant hospital, is it? And I am not going to have his death on my conscience because he bled out and there was something I could do and didn’t. GOT IT?!”

Donnie backed off at the white glint of her eyes, uttering a subdued “ ’kay..” Casey gave an irritated sigh, but helped pull Baxter to a sitting position so April could wrap gauze strips tightly around the fly’s chest. Baxter looked down, watching the turtle bandage him and tie the gauze off around his shoulder. He flinched once, buzzing from the pain, but didn’t fight her.

“There. Try not to move around a lot.” She looked around the room, spotting a chaise covered in a sheet. She removed the dustcover and motioned for the boys to carry Stockman over to it.

The fly’s mandibles moved as he was set down. “…rrr…retro-mutagen…”

“It’s not a retro-mutagen,” Donatello told him. “It’s useless to you.”

Baxter shook his head, buzzing again, irritated that he’d been interrupted. “…my lab.. In the lllobby. Take it.”

Donnie gave him a nod, and the three of them exited the room.

“Thhhank…” the fly-man started to say belatedly, but the door had already closed behind them.

 

Donnie, Casey and April hurried down the remaining stretch of corridor. They would have to cross the expanse of the seating area to reach the lobby and they would be fully exposed when they did. “We’re probably best off heading along the side…” Donnie directed, and they started for it at a run while still in the corridor, when Xever came around the corner. He was carrying a tray of food, clearly not expecting enemies. He gasped and leapt back, dropping his tray as the three nearly piled into him.

With a mighty kick from his robotic legs, he sent Donnie flying backward, knocking Casey and April down like bowling pins. “Bradford! Tiger Claw! Intruders!!” he yelled.

The door of the occupied room they had passed was flung open as they regained their footing. The tiger mutant leapt out, guns blazing. They had a tough time dodging the shots in the close quarters of the hallway. Casey opened a dressing room door and sidestepped the laser-fire, pulling April inside with him.

FishFace was not pleased about being caught in friendly fire either. “Watch where you are shooting, idiota!” he hollered at the big cat. He dodged back around the corner he had just turned, with Donatello leaping off the hallway’s wall and launching himself in the same direction to evade Tiger Claw’s shots.

One of Casey’s M-80-loaded pucks clacked into the hallway, rebounding off the walls at blinding speed, then exploding into shards around the tiger’s feet. He hissed in pain, then gave an enraged roar. “Wormrider! Face me!”

Casey chanced a mocking look around the doorframe. “Hello, Kitty!” he announced. “I’ve been waiting to see you again too!” He ducked back around the door and slammed it.

The tiger mutant didn’t so much as open the door as tear it, frame and all, out of the wall. As soon as he threw it clear, there was a _thwack_ , and something very light hit him between the eyes, showering little green bits across his face. Tiger Claw looked stunned at such a weak attack. He laughed heartily. “You expect to defeat me with a single eggshell, cub?” He laughed again, a bit longer and crazier than he possibly should have. He sniffed around himself curiously. That was an odd smell…

“Nope. I figured one wouldn’t be enough.” He handled another egg on the blade of his stick, then shot it across the room at their foe. “Which is why I brought a crap-ton of ‘em! Keep ‘em coming, April!” She nodded, rolling another egg across the all-but-nonexistent carpet for him to shoot across the room at Tiger Claw. Green bits of herb floated in the air after each impact.

The tiger-man sneezed, looking a bit disoriented, and trying to pull himself to his senses. “What is—“

“He can’t be shaking it off…” Casey said in amazement.

April took out her tessen and fanned it at the floor, stirring the contents of the eggshells back up into the air again. Tiger Claw finally seemed to succumb to the herb’s effects, eyes dilating. He reached out for something in front of him that only he could see, then made a lunge for it, knocking over a chair as he crashed to the floor. He started arching his back, twisting this way and that, and clawing the frayed carpet.

Casey and April stepped around the stoned tiger and slipped back through where the door had been.

“What _was_ that?” she asked.

“Chemical warfare,” he replied simply and smugly. “Something I picked up from those smoke bombs the guys use. Joneskitty is gonna be pissed that I used up all her catnip, though.”

 

Rahzar burst into the hallway at Xever’s call, in the midst of three turtles, who scattered and turned to face him, weapons at the ready. He threw a set of his razor-sharp claws at Michelangelo, in front of him, and floored Raph behind him with a powerful back-kick. Leonardo leapt at the necrotic wolf to land on his back, though there was little back left to land on, and slashing at what flesh he had was like hacking at dry beef jerky. Rahzar managed to get a grip on him and throw him off. Mikey wrapped one of the wolf’s legs with his kusarigama, but Rahzar grabbed the chain, yanking the turtle off his feet and throwing him behind him down the corridor. While Leo blocked the wolf’s claws with his katanas, Raph smirked, an idea coming to mind.

“Mikey! Low-hanging fruit!” Mikey nodded and retracted into his shell. Raphel grabbed him by the shell and threw him low, like a frisbee. Once between Rahzar’s legs, Mikey stuck his feet up into the wolf’s tender bits. He continued on his trajectory as Rahzar let out a high-pitched canine yelp and a series of whimpers as he fell to his knees. Leo winced in sympathy.

“Don’t worry… those grow back!” Mikey said, flipping up to his feet. Leo stared at him. “Don’t they?” His brother shook his head slowly, solemnly. “Ooh. Sorry, Rad Brad…” he apologized genuinely.

Raph jumped on Rahzar’s head as a parting insult as he caught up with his brothers, just in time to see the red fish mutant land at their feet. Donnie appeared behind Fish Face, breathing heavily and wielding an allen-wrench in one hand. “Not so hot without your legs, are ya?!”

April and Casey showed up behind him shortly afterward. “And what have you two been up to?” Raph asked.

“Putting the cat out,” Casey smirked.

“You. _You_ knocked Tiger Claw out?”

“Well, not exactly… but he’s bombed out of his mind on catnip. You should see it, it’s hilarious…”

Leo interrupted, asking Donnie, “Did you find the mutagen?”

“Dexter’s lab—“

“Baxter!” April corrected.

“Fine, _Baxter’s_ lab is in the lobby,” Donnie amended. “The mutagen should be there.”

“Well, what’re we standing around here for? Let’s go get it before—“ Movement in the center box caught Raph’s eye. “Shit. Phantom of the Opera’s here…”

Metal glinted, even in the low light on the balcony; the spiked bracers, shoulder guards, the long punching daggers, and the shining kabuto.

“You would defile this place with your presence as well, insolent vermin?!” the low, sinister voice rumbled.

Leo gave the Shredder a flat glare. “Believe me, we have places we’d rather be.”

Raph cut in. “But, unfortunately, your wing-man stole something of ours, and we’re here to get it back.”

“You could just let us get it, and we’ll go,” Michelangelo suggested. The Shredder gave a brief snort of laughter at how likely that was. Mikey turned back to his brothers. “I didn’t think he’d go for that…”

“Besides,” Casey added, “There’s six ‘a us and one ‘a you!” Donnie and Leo made shushing gestures at him, but gave up as he completed the sentence anyway. Shredder snapped his fingers. Foot-bots appeared out of the shadows on the balconies, on the catwalks, and emerged from the wings of the stage.

“Good job, Jones, you jinxed it!” Raph grumbled, elbowing him.

Donnie shrugged. “Still, less than we’re usually up against... Supplier running low, Shred-head?”

Shredder narrowed his eyes at them. “You die this night, sons of Hamato! _Attack!_ ”

The Foot-bots flew into motion, some quite literally flying down from the balconies and catwalks, maces and buzz-saws at the ready. The turtles and Casey crashed into them, taking several down with their initial blows. Casey swatted the head off one with his goalie stick, turned and shorted out another with his taser. Mikey beheaded one with the hook of his kusarigama, then lassoed another robot and dragged it in front of Raph for him to perforate with his sai. Leo was cutting a swath through them; stabbing one, throwing his second katana into the head of the following, beheading a third and retrieving his thrown weapon.

But April was having trouble. Her aim with her tessen was true, but the slashes did little damage to the metal bots, and several of them were closing on her. Donnie pierced one with his spear and threw it into another one behind him when he saw her get swarmed. He heard her shriek as she kept fighting a losing battle. He skewered another of the Foot bots in the ring surrounding her, and caught sight of the purple blood still staining the blade of his naginata. A light bulb in his head clicked on. “April! They run on Kraang technology!”

Her expression went from panicked to smiling. “Oh, that just made my day!” She concentrated for a moment and let off a mind-blast that flattened all the robots around her, as well as a couple dozen more in the vast auditorium. “Thanks, Donnie!” she called happily, concentrating for another blast if it was needed.

“You’re welcome, Sweetheart!” he hollered back, impaling another oncoming bot.

They mopped the last dozen up within moments. “Well. That was fun,” Raph declared as April knocked out three more with a minor, effortless blast and Casey tased the last.

The cloaked figure dropped down from the balcony and strode toward them. Leo called out to the group. “Guys, form up. April, Casey, go find the mutagen and get out. Don’t wait for us!” April nodded and yanked Casey by the wrist toward the lobby. The four turtle ninjas formed a half circle around the oncoming Shredder. They charged.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I started writing this story in June, 2014, and at that point, we only knew that Karai had been mutated, had some semblance of sentient thought, and had fled from Baxter's lab. Karai's character here and in Queen Takes Rook were based on extrapolation from "Vengeance Is Mine." As far as shots in the dark go, I'm pretty happy with it. ;)
> 
> Some folks have a problem with April's Kraang mind powers, but I don't understand what the issue is; it's just giving her another sort of weapon. (Granted, the show seems to be overblowing them a bit in season 3.) But really... it's fine for the Rat King to have psychic power, but not okay for April? I call bullshit.


	8. Tunnel Vision

 

Chapter 8 – Tunnel Vision

 

April and Casey reached the lobby at the top of the seating area and began scouring it for the mutagen. Stockman’s “lab” was not difficult to find, vials and beakers laid out on top of the concession. The carpeting was marred by ichor stains. The containers of pink mutagen sat on the floor, concealed by the stand, Donatello’s charred-looking purple mask still wound around the top of the copper rod. They looked untouched; Baxter hadn’t been in the mood to examine them in his injured state. Casey snagged the two containers under one arm, and peered into the long-abandoned concession. “Hey,” he murmured, grabbing a box of chocolate-covered raisins.

”Are you out of your _mind?!_ ” April chastised, watching him. “Not only do we not have time for this… Those are like fifty years old!”

“Sugar never goes bad,” Casey said, making a big gesture of dumping Raisinettes into his mouth. Sugar may not go bad, but chocolate and raisins _do_ go rancid. He spat them out the first chance he could that April wasn’t looking, and chucked the rest of the box across the room.

The two of them made for the grand doors of the entrance, which April shoved on, to no avail. Casey also threw his shoulders into the door, which popped it open only wide enough for them to be able to see a length of thick chain through. “They chained it from the outside!” April mourned.

Casey sighed, poking a finger at the chain. “Puck-bombs aren’t gonna do anything against this.”

“Shredder’s goons probably just broke in and used the back doors… the more the place still looks abandoned, the better it is for them. Guess we’re stuck going back the way we came…”

 

When Casey and April re-emerged, the turtles were definitely looking worse for the wear. Michelangelo executed a leap up onto the stage in hopes of gaining the upper hand with higher ground, but the Foot Clan master followed his motion, caught the chain of his kusarigama, and even managed to wrap it around Mikey’s own neck. Raphel jumped in and broke the chain with the points of his sai. Donatello attempted an overhead blow, but was blocked by a kick that spun him away and off his footing.

The Shredder’s eyes narrowed as he effortlessly threw off Leonardo’s katanas with his armguards. He glared toward the burn mark on Don’s shell. “You wear his symbol on your back!” he spat. “Thus it shall be your shell in which I serve all of your flesh to your beloved Master Yoshi!”

Raph rolled into his way. “Big talk for someone who hasn’t managed to kill us yet,” he taunted. His sai clashed with Shredder’s fist-daggers.

Shredder narrowed his eyes. “That is something I shall soon remedy,” he growled, twisting Raph’s sai to the point of breaking and kicking him away with a metal-toed boot. Donnie recovered, and stepped back in, facing Shredder with Mikey at his side this time, but Shredder had his eyes on his trophy now and wasn’t letting Donnie escape him. Michelangelo’s attack seemed a minor annoyance to him as he threw the young turtle into a wall with a leg sweep, followed by a vicious kick to the face. Mikey lay still. Leo attempted to attack from the side with a leap, but Shredder only used his momentum against him, throwing him from one side of the stage to the other, continuing to advance on Donnie.

April took in the scene and stopped in her tracks. It was almost as if Shredder had manipulated them into taking to the stage area: a much more confined fighting space. They’d never seen that one coming. But _he_ would never see this one coming... She pulled out her fan. “Go,” she told her human companion. “I’ll catch up in a second.”

“If you’re staying, I’m staying!” Casey decreed.

“No, take the mutagen and get out of here. That’s the most important thing.”

“It’s all for nothing if you get yourself killed!” he insisted, pulling at her.

“It’ll be just as much a waste if the guy who can make the retro-mutagen gets killed!” She looked pleadingly into his eyes. “Please, Jones!”

He gave a disgusted look, but relented. “You’d better be right behind me,” he told her.

“I will,” she nodded. “Now, go!”

 

As Casey ran for the corridor of dressing rooms with the mutagen in tow, April took careful aim with her tessen and threw it with all her strength. It flashed in the dim lights, then hit its target with a resounding _CLANG._ Shredder’s kabuto spun in front of his good eye. He roared with fury, taking a slash from Leo as he righted his helmet.

Donnie looked up. He didn’t dare expose her, but his mind screamed at her to get out of there.

Her fan, though it spun back toward her, wedged in one of the seats in the middle section of the opera house. She winced. She could retrieve it—in fact, it would be a shame to have to leave it behind—but it would expose her position. She used the seats as cover as best as she could, but her shell was much too wide to move through them undetected. Nonetheless, she reached her fan, the fight remaining too heated for their adversary to notice her, or care.

In a fluid motion, Shredder spun out of Raphael’s attack, grabbed him, and threw him into Leo. The two collided, knocking the wind out of them both. He grabbed their heads while they were still disoriented, knocking them together to ensure both turtles were down for the count. In the next second, he caught Don’s spinning bo with his daggers, threw it away, and with another swift series of movements, had Donnie’s throat in his hand. April gasped. She had one chance, but she absolutely had to get it just right… “Donnie!” she cried out to him to get his attention.

He looked over to her, just for a second, but it was enough for her to establish their connection. All at once, she had access to his brainpower… she knew where Shredder’s armor left him exposed, and Donnie’s mind calculated the angles of trajectory like child’s play, and… Oh, hey, that was an even better shot than she’d been thinking of…

The tessen flashed from her hand, slicing the thumb Shredder was using to hold Donatello aloft, then on its return path, slashed across the back of his knee. Donnie dropped, rolled away and recovered his weapon. _April! Step out and get out here!_ he thought at her desperately. _It’s too dangerous!_

 _I’m not leaving you!_ she sent back. _Everyone else is down… he’ll kill you!_

But the new attacker had gained Shredder’s attention. “A fifth… It seems Yoshi is indeed raising his own mutant army!” His eyes fell on April’s fan as she held it ready. “The tessen of Tang Shen! Hamato Yoshi bestowed it upon the likes of _you?!_ ”

“Well, I’m sure he would have given it to Miwa if he’d known she was alive… or if she wasn’t trying to kill us …or wasn’t a giant snake creature…” April came back at him, making a graceful leap up to the stage over the orchestra pit. “Remind me whose fault all those things were, again? Oh yeah, yours!”

“All ultimately owing to Hamato. I have a claim on that fan, turtle. Surrender it to me, and I may let you live!”

April backed around him in a wide circle. “Why? Because you think Tang Shen would have married you if Yoshi had been out of the way?” She made a warning zigzag slice in the air before her with the fan. “I really doubt it. I don’t know if anyone’s pointed it out to you before, but you‘re kind of a gigantic dick. You need a token of a past relationship to remind you of that?”

Shredder drew his head back as if he hadn’t expected that sort of language directed at him, then regained his former determination. “I will cut the insolence out of that tongue of yours!”

“Not if I have anything to say about it!” Donnie hooked his bo over Shredder’s head to choke him with it. The blades of Shredder’s punching daggers caught the wood, straining against it to the point where Donnie had to flip over him or risk his weapon breaking in the battle. Four large gashes were left in the wood. He landed beside April, swinging his bo in a forward spin, while she crouched, defending with her fan. Minds fully joined, they moved as one, running forward and striking at Oroku Saki from both sides simultaneously, eyes gleaming white in the low light. The attack was so coordinated, it took him by surprise. He took a slash to the arm from April’s fan as she tumbled past while he blocked Donnie’s strike. The two of them crossed paths and ran in again for another pass. This time, Donnie’s swing, an improvised move of April’s, unseated Shredder’s kabuto as she feinted a move and somersaulted away as he struck at her.

 _We’re actually doing it!_ they thought together. _Don’t get overconfident, but together, we’re actually match for him… Let’s really open it up on him!_

They went into a paired flip toward their enemy, Donatello striking to the right and April to the left. Shredder spun out of the way, catching April across the shoulder with one of his daggers. They both yelped, grabbing their right shoulder, and Shredder narrowed his eyes at them. “Synergists! So that’s Hamato’s game…”

“ _Look who’s a smart cookie…_ ” they said in unison. The scratch on April’s shoulder wasn’t deep, but they both felt the pain from it. Ignoring it for the time being, they readied for the next attack. They ran at him from either side, the three figures becoming a flurry of jabs, strikes, leg sweeps, kicks and slashes. Neither side seemed to be able to land damage on the other as both sides sought an advantage. The tessen flashed in and out of the fight, occasionally sparking off Oroku’s armor, being caught and thrown by April and Donnie alike. Likewise, Donnie’s bo was passed between the two synergists to strike at the most appropriate moments and angles, always keeping Shredder on his toes. Eventually, he managed to evade and rolled away from them, coming to a rest on one knee.

They paused, panting from the effort, then charged again. But this time, Shredder was ready for them. As April ran in to make a slash at him, he sidestepped Don’s attack, grabbed her wrist and twisted the tessen free, and used her momentum to throw her into the pillar at the stage’s edge. Donnie winced and coughed as the wind was knocked out of her. The air remained in his lungs, but the pain he felt from hers was intense and made him gulp for air in response. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop him from readying a defense against Shredder, who strode toward him confidently. Even with one of April’s improvised moves, it wasn’t enough. Shredder kicked the bo out of his hand and grabbed the collar of his carapace, slamming him to the floor. The points of two daggers stabbed at the base of his skull, keeping him from retracting into his shell. “I was simply going to kill you both,” he informed Donnie with a proud rumble, “but watching you both suffer as your synergy is broken, letting you end yourselves… THAT shall be Hamato Yoshi’s bitter reward!” Donnie’s eyes sprung open as the realization hit them both. He tried to begin the steps of closing the mental doors between them, but in the next moment, Shredder punched him hard in the back of the head, and he knew only blackness.

April let out a strangled, weak scream as Shredder withdrew his bladed fist, the twin daggers leaving long, deep, bleeding cuts across Donnie’s skull. She felt half her mind tearing away, reached a three-fingered hand toward him to keep him from going. _Don’t leave me!_ she thought, screaming in her head. _Please, Donnie! Stay with me!_ She felt the bond between them weakening, the light between them darkening, as if he was being pulled down into the darkness, and she toward her own personal hell. “Donnie!” she cried aloud.           

 

Saki laughed aloud at her pitiful cry, though she hardly heard it in the focus of her concentration. “Behold your fate, student of Splinter, and despair!”

Her head began to ache as the connection frayed further. Her brain felt like it was unraveling. If only they’d had more warning…

((( _Are you still there? I didn’t have time to warn you I was going through a tunnel…_ )))

Her father’s words echoed in her mind from their phone conversation weeks before. … _going through a tunnel…_

It was no longer a dark pit Donnie was being dragged away from her into, merely a tunnel. And no matter how dark they got, every tunnel eventually came to an end. All she needed to do was hold on, and keep the line open for him. _Donnie…. Donnie, are you there? Come back to me… Come back, love… Donnie…_

“And now, to dispatch the others.” Shredder gloated as he reached for the abandoned fan, his hand being narrowly missed by two shuriken which pinned the fan securely to the stage. He looked up, his face betraying shock, even a touch of fear. “Karai? Daughter?”

“Only halfff right, sssstepffathher,” the kunoichi hissed with her smooth voice. “And thhat iszz not yourszzz.”

“Karai,” Shredder growled warningly, seeking her on the catwalks, “do not defy me!”

A sandbag dropped from the darkness, narrowly missing Shredder. “Oh, I intend to, at evvvery turn!” He voice seemed to echo from various parts of the theatre. “You took my mothhher ffrom me. You took my humanity. You took the vvvery truthhh ffrom me!” Another sandbag fell. Shredder backflipped out of its path. She slid down a curtain, slashing it with her falchion.

Shredder looked taken aback at her human appearance. “You are no longer a mutant! How?!” He stared as she circled him.

But she wasn’t done with her tirade yet. “You raiszzed me to disssposzze of your enemieszz, to fffulfill _your_ vvvendetta! You uszzed me! April ‘szz right—you are jussst an utter douchhhebag.”

 

 _Donnie… wake up, Donnie… I’m waiting for you…_ April poured the whole of her mental strength into maintaining their connection, her psychic ability bolstering the link further. _I’m here… I’m here! Come back to me… Stay with me, my Donnie…_ Minutes had passed. She felt it trying to fade, and pushed against the connection as hard as she could. The end of the tunnel had better be soon, or she was going to lose him! _Donnie, Donatello, I’m right here… reach out to me, love!_

And then, a miracle: the tiniest sigh from his mind. Her heart sang! She seized that tiny wisp of thought like a lifeline for a drowning person and wrapped her whole being around it. _Donnie! It’s me! I’m here! Your April is right here!_ She scrambled on her hands and knees across the stage. The darkness of the tunnel evaporated as her world burst back into glorious light.

His eyes fluttered weakly as he came conscious. _A-April?_ His vision focused, and there was her beautiful turtle face with its frame of red hair, tears of joy and near-loss streaming from her gorgeous blue eyes. A freight train of emotions bowled him over; he felt himself seized and enwrapped in them: the ebbing fear, intense relief, the joy of triumph, the exhaustion from the effort she’d expended to keep the connection open. Her smile was bright as the morning sun, and infectious, as Donnie found himself smiling just as broadly, reaching up to stroke her hair. As he realized what she had done, he found himself in awe of her. _You saved us… saved us both!_ He sat up and pulled her to him. _April! You’re incredible!!_

Shredder’s attention was drawn by the female turtle dashing across the stage to her synergy partner… yet she wasn’t wearing an expression of despair, but one of near rapture! “What?!” he bellowed, just before he was grappled in Karai’s glistening coils, having used the distraction to her benefit. She constricted where she could, but the metal points of his armor ripped at her as he fought to free himself. She grabbed at the arm April had slashed open with one of her viper-headed hands, spitting venom into it. Shredder screamed as the toxin burned in the wound. He managed to gain his feet, spun and threw Karai across the stage. She landed hard, but snapped back into a fighting stance.

Before she could strike again, he punched through one of the stage’s trap doors and disappeared through it. Karai launched herself at him with an enraged hiss. She stuck her head through the hole, spitting venom into the darkness, but Shredder was gone. She gave an angry yell, slapping the stage with her tail. A section of it creaked and gave, shattering apart in a cloud of splinters and dust. She blinked at it blankly in surprise and slithered cautiously away from the unstable bit.

“All right, Karai… I think the stage has had enough.”

She looked up at Leo. “Oh, sssso _now_ you’re awake. Ssssome ninja, sssleeping thhrough thhe fffight.”

“You followed us.” He sat up, slapping Raphael gently in the face to bring him around.

“Ofvv coursssse I did.”

“But… I was going to ask if you wanted to come along…”

She snorted. “Ifff you had asssked, I wouldn’t havvve come.”

“So… you came because I didn’t ask you? That doesn’t make any sense…”

“Doesssn’t it? Ifff I’d come withhh you, you’d’vvve exsspected me to fffight witthh your happy little team, wouldn’t you?”

Leo mulled this over, but didn’t answer.

“It’sss thhe tactic ofvv a general, ssssomethhing I learned fffrom Sshhredder. You sssend all thhe troopsss you havvve, in order ofvv exsspendability, and only fffight yourssselfff iff you havffe to.“

“In other words, you were using us as your cannon fodder.” He scowled at her.

She grinned wickedly back. “You’re ssso cute when you loszze your naïvvveté!” He grinned a bit through his scowl, smacking Raph again. Unfortunately for him, Raph had woken with his previous slap, and this one earned Leo a firm punch that knocked him over. Karai smirked. “Ssssee you around, Leo.” Her serpentine form disappeared behind a curtain. “And you might want to get April’sss ffan fffor her… shhhe looksss a little… disssstracted…”

Leo regarded the two synergists busy smothering each other in kisses and gave them a wan smile. Raph, cross-legged next to him, threw his hands up in a silent “what the hell is this?” gesture at them and shook his head with an overly-dramatic sigh. Leo pointed for him to go collect Michelangelo.

“Come on, guys, let’s go home,” Leo called, standing and walking over to unpin the fan from Karai’s shuriken.

Donnie stood, picking April up as she wrapped her legs around his lower torso. He rested her shell against one of the stage support pillars and looked deeply into her eyes. “ _You_ are _my_ hero!” he told her profoundly. She beamed at him, stroking his head, and they came together in a long, deep kiss.

“Donnie?” Leo called again insistently. Don afforded him no eye contact, but held out a thumbs-up and made a weak shooing motion at him twice, not breaking away from their kiss.

 

Donatello eventually pulled back from making out with April. _We need to go,_ he thought to her. She nodded, though couldn’t break contact with his gaze.   She projected a mental image of the subway car to him, and he nodded. He set her back on her feet, and the two of them exited the stage at its rear and heading down the corridor they’d entered through. They hardly noticed the debris from the battle, but it was hard to ignore Tiger Claw rolling around in the hallway, grabbing his feet. “Guys! You guys! I can count to rainbow on my toes!” he announced gleefully to them.

They had to stop and stare at him. “ _Okay then!_ ” they finally responded in tandem. “ _You have fun with that!_ ” Tiger Claw apparently found their paired speech uproariously funny, bellowing laughter and falling back into the dressing room, sending flakes of catnip into the air once more. The two of them shook their heads in the same manner and left him.

They hardly acknowledged Rahzar’s continued whimpering, or FishFace’s calls of, “Boss? Bradford? Could someone bring me my legs? Hello?”

 

Casey and the rest of the turtles were waiting for them by a toppled section of the chain-link fencing. Casey looked especially miffed. “ _This_ is your idea of ‘catching up in a second?!’”

“ _Sorry, Casey_ ,” the two of them said in unison, eyes only for each other.

The young vigilante crossed his arms, leaning against a fencepost, which gave slightly from the weight. “Yeah, I can tell you’re really broken up about it,” he mumbled sulkily.

“Don’t even bother, man,” Raph reassured him. “There’s no talking to them when they’re like this. Watch… Hey Donnie!” he called. “Mikey used all the lightning mutagen to make milkshakes.”

“I did not!” Mikey countered in an offended tone.

“ _That’s nice, Raph,”_ they said, neither looking at, nor apparently hearing him.

“Also, we’re having Shredder over for dinner next week. We elected you to table dance for him.”

“ _Okay. Have fun, then._ ”

Raph shrugged. “See?” he told Casey. “Totally pointless.”

Leo patted him on the shoulder and claimed the mutagen from him. “Give ‘em until morning. They’ll be more appreciative when they get this out of their systems. Good work in there, Casey.”

Casey smirked and exchanged a fist-bump with him. “At least someone recognizes my awesomeness. I’ll catch you guys later.” He waved over a shoulder and took off on his skates.

April and Donnie seemed to have lost all volition to move, holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes, statue-still.

“Aww, look how cute! They’re so in love with each other!” Mikey fawned. “They look just like a movie poster!”

Raph mock-gagged and sauntered off while Leo moved to herd the synergists. “Go,” he said, shoving them both along in front of him. “Get underground, and then you can go do all the smoochy stuff you want.”

Catalyzed by the push into motion, the pair sped from a walk to a jog to an all-out sprint for the nearest manhole. They dropped down into the sewers and were off at a breakneck pace.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Battles are difficult to choreograph. :P


	9. Soul Touch

 

Chapter 9 – Soul Touch

 

They ran together, not waiting for the others, not caring about the mutagen… just fully involved with each other. It was a dance, with no music or rhythm, but of the occasional touch and the continual meeting of the eyes.   He wasn’t even seeing her physical self anymore; he was barely registering the physical world around him. There were no words to his thoughts, only intense emotions of pride, triumph, gratitude, and adoration for her, surrounding and embracing her, and hers radiated back at him: love and relief, desire and joy.

Reaching the subway car, they joined, him sliding into her… though it hardly seemed to matter; their consciences were already in another realm entirely, the physical realm slipping away from them. His emotions sang to hers, and hers echoed him in harmony. Words ceased to exist among the clear, flowing emotions. All thought burned away. There was only emotion here, a great, blindingly white plane, edged in shining rays of yellow and orange, and the very cores of themselves, their senses of self, their souls: iridescent spheres of pure silver light, like stars in their own private universe, that sang out to each other. There was no fear, or pain, nor jealousy, nor lust… There was no one else, and nothing else… only two souls serenading each other with their purest love.

The two spheres drew closer together as if magnetized, spun around each other and finally kissed, intense light flaring around them. They cleaved together like soap bubbles, or neutrons in the nucleus of an atom, the bright flare increasing the more they pressed together. From time to time they passed through each other, other times nearly merging into one.

Now and again, they would get flashes of themselves from the physical world, but so faint, they were little more than mere outlines. Their bodies coupled who knew how many times, in how many positions, but the physical pleasure was a tiny flash compared to the intensity of the communion of their souls.

They were content, and they were together, and they were perfect. They were one. Their love wrapped around them like a blanket, warm, secure, and serene.

Donatello would have been happy to spend eternity there, and would have, had April not eventually pulled away. A sense of worry came over him, pulling him back to the lower plane of the mind. _What is it? What’s wrong?_ he thought to her.

 _We have to pull out,_ she thought back sadly, but urgently, _or our bodies will die!_

 _That was a bit melodramatic, wasn’t it?_ he thought, mostly to himself as they began their separation, but as he began to feel the aches in his body, he knew she was right.

“How did you know?” he asked aloud as they pulled further away. “How could you tell we needed to stop?”

“I… had a feeling,” she answered simply.

“A feeling,” he said skeptically. “In that mass of feelings, you got a feeling… that somehow I didn’t also feel.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know… maybe more like an instinct? Man, what the hell were we _doing_ in here?! This place is a total disaster area!” True enough, the subway car looked like it had been turned inside out and partially whitewashed with… well, let’s be honest, turtle cum.

As they finished stepping out of their synergy, exhaustion hit them both like a brick wall. Donnie half-carried April back to the lair. April blearily looked at the clock on her T-phone. “Three hours... new record for us.”

Donnie chuckled in response. “Wonder if Splinter will be impressed?”

 

A furious Splinter met them at the steps. “Where have you been?!” he demanded.

“Sorry Master… We didn’t think anyone would miss us for a few hours.”

“A few hours, no. Half a day, yes! Highly irresponsible!”

“Wait… what?” Donnie looked confusedly at April.

She took out her phone again. “Oh Jesus.. that says 5:00 _pm_ … I thought it was _am_!”

“WHAT?!” Don blinked. “But… it didn’t feel like any time was passing at all! How could we lose that much time?”

“Uhh… Maybe our biological clocks don’t work as well when we’re that deep?”

Splinter fumed at them. “How long?”

April grimaced sleepily. “Like… 16 hours?”

“More like 17 if you include the fight.”

“Oh, right.”

Splinter’s jaw dropped. “What have you done?”

Donnie eyes blurred. He grimaced. “Sensei, I’m sorry, but… could I ask you to continue being mad at us in the morning? We’re really wiped out…”

April’s stomach growled. “…and hungry.”

Donnie coughed. “…and dehydrated…”

The rat sighed. “In the morning, then.”

 

Donatello awoke in his room, staring at the ceiling. He still felt fatigue in every muscle, and the deep cuts across his head throbbed, though not as intensely as before he had slept. He breathed a contented sigh, remembering the warm feelings that had enveloped him the previous day. Oh, to feel that again…

His door slid open. Splinter entered with a tray of food and tea, sliding the door closed behind him with his tail.

“Sensei, ohayo gozaimas,” Donnie greeted, sitting up.

“Ah, you are already awake. I thought I might have to wait until you woke.” He set the tray on a corner of the bedside table and knelt by the bedside.   “Eat, and tell me about where you were that you could not measure time.”

Donnie fell back on his pillow. “Sensei, it was beautiful! … We were… I don’t know, really…”

“You used your synergy in your battle against Oroku Saki. I have gathered this much.” He scowled down at his son and student. “It was foolish to do so, especially after I had warned you of what came of Setsuko and Keto.”

Donnie’s brow creased with an apologetic expression. “We were out of options.”

“A ninja is never out of options!” the rat-mutant scolded. “Continue.”

Donnie nodded. “Shredder knocked me out, and April… she kept our mental connection going on her own, for several minutes. She didn’t give up on me. She saved us both.”

“And after that?”

He shook his head. “I don’t really remember. It was all just emotions from then on… It was like… I didn’t have any connection to my body, and neither did she… We were just… made of light. There was light everywhere, and love, and us, and nothing else. And we were the same… and we were complete.“ He stared at the blank concrete ceiling, not seeing it at all. “I kissed her soul,” he smiled up at it. Splinter let out a breathless gasp. “And I felt the most encompassing sense of… peace.”

He paused, feeling that serenity again as he remembered it.

Master Splinter sat quietly for a time, letting Donatello relive the tranquility in his mind. At length, he prompted, “What brought you back?”

“April got a sense that we needed to go back. She was right, of course. If she hadn’t, we probably would have stayed there until our bodies died of starvation. I wouldn’t have even cared.”

Splinter sighed. “You realize how much you endangered yourselves, then.”

“Yes, Sensei,” Donnie answered with a heavy sigh.

“Not only did you not wish to return, but you could have been taken unaware by our enemies. Killed, even. You left yourselves completely vulnerable!”

Donnie hadn’t realized this, and clenched his eyes. “I’m sorry, Sensei. We didn’t mean to make you worry…”

The rat nodded. “I am more worried now that you will attempt to reach this depth again, and that the consequences will be dire. It is for the best that you not let it happen again.”

“Hai, Sensei.”

“Your tea is getting cold. I will leave you now, and have a word with April about what we have discussed.” He made a slight bow, which Donnie returned, and exited the room.

Don threw back half of the tea at one gulp—ugh, it was terribly cold—and flopped back on his pillow. _If we’re never allowed to do it again,_ he thought, _at least we had this once._ He returned to staring at the ceiling, committing the touch of their souls to memory.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember how April and Don's synergy connected them on levels of physical, mental, and spiritual? Usually, they just use the physical and mental connections between them; this is their first encounter with their spiritual connection. Though they're told never to use it, it can be of use to them; I'll be exploring this in future stories.


	10. Connections

 

                Chapter 10 – Connections

 

Donnie peered through the microscope and nodded to himself, satisfied that he had indeed precisely replicated the original lightning-altered mutagen. He transferred small amounts of it to a number of test tubes, stoppered them, and set them in the centrifuge to spin. And there it was, the beginning of April’s return to humanity.

He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel… The last few weeks, having April as a turtle at his side, in his mind, as his lover—they’d been the best weeks of his life. And when he developed this retro-mutagen for her… that was it. She would go back to being a human, and they would go back to being incompatible. Would they even be able to synergize as different species? The thought that they wouldn’t be able to connect anymore killed him… to lose the special bond, the intimate understanding they’d found of each other… to never again feel what she was feeling, what they felt together… That was more devastating than the fact he’d never be able to have sex with her again.

There was, he supposed, the off-chance than she would want to stay a turtle. But she had a life as a human to return to topside. Her school, her father… Casey. Ah, Christ… he was going to lose her to Casey after all. He could see it now, Jones picking her up on the rebound, so to speak. _What you really need, Red, is a man with the right equipment,_ he would say, silhouetted by the setting sun in a way that the blade of his hockey stick stuck upward from his pelvis suggestively. Ugh, Donnie felt like he needed to run bleach through his brain after that one. He hoped he could bury the thought down far enough that April wouldn’t pick up on it the next time they merged minds.

Still, asking her to remain a mutant… he couldn’t do that. It wasn’t responsible, and it wasn’t fair. Her former life had been taken from her, and it was up to him to restore it to her. Part of him screamed at him to be more selfish, keep her down in the dark with him… it would be easy; just lie about being able to make the retro-mutagen. But he pushed that thought away as well. It was stupid anyway… an obvious lie like that would stick out like a sore thumb when she saw his thoughts, more than Jones’s hockey stick… Stop, thought… go away.

He stared at the centrifuge spinning. That was it, then… the end was coming, and time was of the essence from here on out.

April exited Splinter’s study, looking a bit forlorn. She caught Donnie’s eye and came to sit next to him in his lab. “So,” he said, “I guess no more soul-smooching for us.”

She sighed. “No. I suppose Splinter has a point… we have no way to guarantee our safety when we’re that deep, and with no way to know when to pull out of it.. yeah, it’s dangerous. Which is a real shame, because _that_ … wow.”

“I know, right?” He shifted her onto his lap, embracing her tightly. “How is _this_ ever going to be enough again?”

She set her forehead against his, eyes closed. “This is so ridiculous… I can’t hardly feel you at all!”

He reached a hand up to stroke her cheek, wiping a tear from her eye with his thumb. “Hey…” She opened her eyes and a comforting wave of togetherness spilled over them. _Better now?_ he asked mentally. She nodded, reaching a hand up to stroke his head. She touched one of the cuts left from Shredder’s tekko-gaki, winced and drew her hand back to her own head as the stab of pain from it struck her as well.

 _We share the pleasure, we share the pain…_ she reasoned.   Donnie nodded. He hadn’t had time to feel a thing when Shredder had knocked him out; she wouldn’t have felt anything in the way that he’d felt the wind knocked out of her. _Splinter’s right, then... it’s an extra liability to use it in a fight if we both get hurt, synergy breaking aside._ She hopped off his lap and walked behind him to examine the wounds. _I wish I’d’ve felt these sooner; I could have cleaned them._ She regarded the twin slashes critically. Donnie saw through her eyes that they ran nearly from his right temple to the crown of his head, and were still dull red, only partially scabbed over since the battle. _These probably needed stitches… it might be too late now, but I can at least try to butterfly them together…_

Donnie found himself perplexed at her first-aid abilities, first with Baxter and now with himself, and sought gently through her mind, like flipping through the pages of a book—ah, there. She’d taken a first-aid course for extra credit in a health class a couple years earlier… she hadn’t really needed the extra credit, overachiever as she was, so much as she’d had the feeling it would be a handy skill to know. _And boy is it paying off now,_ she thought at him as she fetched a bowl of water and a clean cloth and started carefully dabbing at the wounds.

She was exceedingly gentle, especially since she felt the same pain he did if she blotted too hard at the long rents in the flesh. She once dabbed upon a very sensitive area. He grit his teeth against it, but she hissed in empathetic pain. _Sorry!_

 _You don’t have to be in synergy for this… you can step out again and save yourself the pain_ , he insisted. _No point in both of us feeling this…_

_It’s not bad, and I don’t want to be alone out there… it’s so cold!_

He understood. He didn’t want to be without her, either. It wasn’t as intense as the emotional warmth of the spiritual plane, but at least they could feel some of those calming, warm emotions from each other through their bond. Even the memory of that place and their souls’ touch brought some of the comfort of it back to them, a balm to the loss of their access to it.

 _I’m going to have Dad bring us some more medical supplies… you guys are really running low._ April finished cleaning Don’s gashes and carefully pushed the flesh together as she applied medical tape to hold them shut. _I hope they don’t scar…_

 _And?_ he jabbed at her, _If I’m horribly mutilated for life?_

She giggled a little. _You’ll look like someone to be reckoned with… My brave warrior!_ She traced the burn mark on his shell. He looked at it through her vision… it was remarkable how close to the Hamato crest it was, just on pure chance, the way he’d fused the mutagen containers together, resembling a five-petaled flower. It was still off by a few details… It was kind of a pity…

 _Well, now that you’re all patched up,_ April suggested, _maybe you could help me with_ —

“DONNIE!! APRIL!!” The two of them blinked at Raph’s angry shout, and they both came quickly to the same conclusion.

“—cleaning,” they finished aloud simultaneously.

“Sorry, Raph!” April called, packing the medical supplies back in their box.

“We’re on it!” Donnie added. They looked back at each other, sharing an embarrassed giggle, and she followed him out of his lab.

 

The train car was, as they’d left it, a disastrous mess. The furniture was turned over, some of it looking decidedly worse for wear. The mattress was folded over on itself, sheets torn off and draped over the upended couch and wadded up on the floor, cushions strewn everywhere. A rank, hormonal smell hung in the air. April wrinkled her nose at it as they entered. “Ohmigod, what the hell were we doing?!” she wondered again.

Donnie looked around, setting down their bucket of clean water, and wilted. Everything was filthy. The task ahead of them was daunting. And for having had sex for 15 hours, he was a bit jealous that he hadn’t gotten to feel any of the pleasure from it. True, the soul-touch was much more fulfilling, but nonetheless, he felt a bit cheated.

“Okay, this one, I think I get…” April said, leaning tauntingly over the overturned armchair, exposing her backside openly to him. He felt something swelling in his nether-regions, but tried to put it out of his mind as she stood again and pointed at a splotch on the arched ceiling. “…but how did you manage that?!”

Donnie stared at the stain, perplexed despite being kind of grossed out. It seemed to defy physics. “What the fuck…? How…?”

“That one’s all yours , tall guy,” April smirked, clapping him on the shoulder congratulatorily. She herself grabbed the wadded sheets, grimaced, and took them out onto the platform to shake them out over the tracks. They shed a plethora of crusty white crumbs.

It took them nearly three hours, but for their efforts, the abandoned subway car was absolutely shining and spotless. April was still looking things over critically. “I wonder if we could scrape up some fabric somewhere for curtains… and maybe some throw pillows…”

“Curtains? Why?!” Donnie scoffed. “Not like there’s that much light down here to block out…”

April rolled her eyes. “Just for comfort. You know, to make the place feel more… homey.”

“Homey? It’s a subway car. That we have sex in. Granted, kind of a lot.”

“Exactly! There’s no reason we shouldn’t make it comfortable, as long as we’re in here so much.”

Don looked at her through narrowed eyes. “This is one of those ‘girl things’ I keep hearing about, isn’t it?”

She stuck her beak in the air at him. “You’ll like it when I’m done.”

“I’m not the one that has to like it—this is Raph’s place, remember, for as much as we use it... Anything too foofy, he’ll tear it out, I promise you that.”

“I’m not saying it needs lace trimmings and doilies… just, ya know, some touches to make it less… subway car.”

Donnie sighed. “You’re wasting your time…”

“And _you_ are gonna be eating those words. Now c’mere and help me with this.” She bent as if to pick up the green plush armchair.

“Wh—what’re you doing now?” he chuckled at her. “You want to wreck the place again and start over?”

“Well, I figure we’ve earned a break, and this _did_ look fun…”

“Fine, _once_.” He rolled his eyes bending to help her turn the chair over.

 

As they returned to the lair, Donnie swung by his lab to rotate out the mutagen, but stopped when he pulled the first test tube out of the centrifuge. It hadn’t separated at all. “What the…” he said looking around, and declaring, “Agghh,” as he found the plug lying on the floor. He breathed an annoyed sigh… there was a few hours wasted. Either he or April must have caught the cord on their foot or something as they were leaving. He stuck it back in the outlet, and the centrifuge began humming merrily again.

Leo approached as Don was on his way out of the lab. “Hey… You guys coming on patrol tonight?”

“Yeah, of course… why?” Leo pointed to the tape across Don’s head. “Oh… ‘s fine.”

“Good. We still have mutagen around the city we need to track down, now that we’re not fighting the Kraang or Shredder. Seems like a nice, relaxing change, actually…”

Donnie gave a little laugh. “I know, right? Just roaming around looking for mutagen after all this is like a vacation!”

“By the way… Casey’s coming. You might want to thank him.”

Donnie looked at him questioningly. “What? What for?”

“You guys were a little too involved with each other to thank him for taking care of the mutagen the other night. You were pretty much ignoring everyone at that point…”

“Oh. Right… I guess he does deserve some credit. I gotta admit, the catnip bombs of his were pretty ingenious…”

Even so, the fact didn’t keep Donnie from stewing about Jones even being along… Yes, he retrieved the mutagen while the rest of them were busy fighting, and he did great against the Foot-bots and Tiger Claw… but Don had to wonder if he would have done any of it had April’s restoration not been on the line. After all, Casey probably had the most to gain from April’s restored humanity… or maybe Donnie was just being jealous of his rival again. He didn’t care. He was allowed some vices, wasn’t he? After all, the shining star of his world would run right into Casey’s arms as soon as she was human again.

God, he hadn’t even refined the first batch of the mutagen yet, and it felt like he’d lost her. Were she and Casey really fated to be together instead? And how could that be, when he and April were similar enough in soul to create a synergy? Or maybe it was all owing to April’s psychic abilities—maybe she _could_ synergize with Jones if she tried. That would mean there was nothing special between them… that it was just luck that they’d synergized. Surely not… but the thought of it broke his heart into a million pieces, and then took those pieces and stomped on them.

He wished she wasn’t in training with Splinter at the moment. The touch of her mind would have been such a comfort…

He plunked down beside Leo on the bench before the TV, pensive.

“By the way, you ‘considered’ what we discussed earlier?” Leo interrupted his thoughts… and thanks, Leonardo, for throwing acid on that wound…

“Yeah,” Donnie replied simply.

“…and?”

Don let out a wearied sigh. “Leave it alone, man… We’ve only got a few weeks left together, and then it’ll be a non-issue.”

“It’s gotten worse, hasn’t it?”

“Not that much,” he said optimistically. “Maybe it’s ebbing off. Maybe she’s getting a handle on it.”

Leo stared him down. “Really, Donnie? Fifteen hours?”

Donnie glared at his brother. “Don’t talk like you have any idea what happened there. Until you ascend two states of being with someone, Leo, you don’t have the right.”

“So, you weren’t having sex…?”

He made a number of choked-off syllables. “I am _so_ done talking to you right now.” He rose and stalked off in a fouler mood than before.

Figuring it would help him blow off some steam, he headed for the dojo to practice his kata. It did seem to help, a little bit anyway, to burn off some of the venom percolating through his system. His moves were powerful and accurate, fueled by channeled rage and frustration. He aimed a spin-jab at their training dummy, stabbing it with brutal force. He had every right to be upset, didn’t he? With April all but guaranteed to leave him, and Leo nettling him about her so-called aggression. He struck the dummy again with the butt of his staff, and gave it a swinging kick for good measure. And then there was the fact that when April left, she would probably go right back to dating _motherfucking_ _Casey_. He rammed the dummy with an over-powered jab to its face, coupled with a mighty, wrathful yell. The blow was so strong, the metal ring holding it up broke. The dummy was sent airborne across the dojo, landing with a flump. Donnie groaned; now he’d have to weld the ring back together. Could this day possibly get any shittier?!

April emerged from Splinter’s study as Donatello was hanging the dummy back on its hook, ring restored. He felt instantly warmed by her smile. Finally… He sought to sink into her comforting mental embrace, opened the door between them and… felt it shut in his face. He blinked and tried again, but couldn’t seem to make a connection with her. He looked querulously over at her. “Are you _blocking_ me?!”

“Sorry, Donnie… it’s just… Casey’s going to be here soon, and you know… it’d be kind of rude of us to be in synergy again when he gets here. I think it weirds him out.”

“April…” he started, visibly hurt by the sudden rejection just when he needed her to be receptive.

She opened a bit to him, giving him a mental caress. _After the patrol, okay? Besides, I’ve got homework I need to get done._ Then she shut him out again.

He gawped after her as she went to lay on the tire swing and read. He grumbled and dragged himself off to poke at something or other in his lab. “This day is _so_ fired…”

 

Donatello sat on the steps. There was surprisingly little to do in his lab for the time being, and not enough time to start on anything else, and now he was just flat-out bored. Casey arrived, doing a hand-plant and swinging himself over the gates. “ ’sup, Donnie?” he said cordially.

“Eh, ya know. Stuff,” Donnie said downheartedly. “Oh, and, uh.. good job the other day with the fight and getting the mutagen and all.”

“No prob. Hey, April!” he called to the turtle on the tire swing.

“One sec… almost done here,” she hailed in return.

Donnie stared at her, head in his hand. He did his best not to sigh, but Casey picked up on his mood anyway. “Seriously, what’s with you today?” he said lowly. “You look like someone ran over your cat.”

He kept staring at April.   Casey followed his gaze. “You’ll take care of her, won’t you, Jones? Once she’s human again?”

“ ‘Course I will! Not that April needs taking care of… I mean, it’s more like her pulling my ass out of the fire most of the time! …Don’t tell her I said that. But what… “ His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. “Are you giving up on her?!”

Donnie looked at him forlornly. “We don’t have much time left together. If I can make her retro-mutagen with no complications, maybe a few weeks. Then she goes back to her normal life on the surface. I just want to be sure there’s someone there to watch her back, ya know? Someone to be there for her, make her happy, keep her safe from the Kraang…”

“And why aren’t you gonna be there for that?!” A shocked look came to his eyes, and he dropped his voice below a whisper. “You’re not planning on…?!”

Don blinked. “Huh? OH. Nonono… I’ll be around, just not… as close.” He gave April another mournful but loving look. “She’s a flower. She deserves a life in the sun. Not the sewer.”

April closed her book at last and ambled over to join them. “So, what’re you guys talking about?”

“Erm… uh…” started Donnie brilliantly.

”We were just talking about what I could do to improve Donnie’s new shell-brand. My aunt got me a wood-burning kit for my birthday, thinks a new hobby will keep me out of trouble. Should work like a champ on turtle-shell. I figure a detail here and there, and I can make it look just like Splinter’s house symbol, right? Totally hot.” He held his hand out expectantly. “April, fan me.”

“What??!” April snapped, utterly offended.

“What?!” Donnie echoed.

“Your fan, little miss genius; it has the design on it! I need to see it!”

April blushed a little beneath her green skin. “Ohhh. Right.” She handed her tessen over to Casey.

Jones compared the burn mark on Donnie’s shell and the Hamato Clan sigil. “Yep, just need to fill this bit in a little more, and draw in the points and half circles at the top… Maybe do the circle bordering it, but I don’t know if it’ll all fit… I need one of those circle-drawing things…”

“A compass?” April volunteered.

“No, compasses are for pointing direction. I need a thing to draw a circle with!”

“That’s also called a compass, Casey, you dimwit!”

“Am I seriously considering letting you do this?” Donnie pondered. “How do I know you won’t just screw it up? Or write ‘Dorkatello’ across my shell?”

Casey gave him a winning gapped grin. “Trust me. If school has been good for anything, it’s given me plenty of time to doodle on my notebooks.”

April backed him up. “This is true… granted, most of it is band logos and skulls and hockey gear…”

“I can line it out in pencil first. And April can watch and make sure I’m not screwing you up.”

Donnie stopped to think it over. Shredder had already mistaken the scorch mark for the Hamato no kamon, it may as well actually _be_ the crest in full. April would be supervising, and wouldn’t approve of any nonsense on Jones’s part. And of course, the mark would shed away after a while. He actually couldn’t find any point to object to. “All right, you’re on.”

“Sweet! How’s Saturday?”

Donnie looked to April. She nodded approval. “Saturday it is.” He paused. “Should I be apprehensive at how eager you are do to this?”

Casey gave a chuckle. “I never turn down a chance to burn stuff.” April rolled her eyes.

“Guys,” Leo called, approaching the steps out, “patrol time. Get a move on!”

The three of them rose. Donnie snagged the mutagen detector from his lab and joined the rest of the group on the way out, catching up with Raph and Casey. “Nice cover,” he whispered to Casey.

“I got your back, man. Besides, I was gonna bring it up anyway. Never miss a chance to burn stuff.”

 

The group trekked east across the rooftops. Casey, though he was getting better at making roof-to-roof jumps, opted to stay on the ground and follow on his skates. Though Donnie had managed to make a map to predict the general area the mutagen containers had fallen on, given the flight path of the Kraang ship and the scatter plot of the containers they had found so far, the swath of city to be covered was still miles wide. Donnie insisted on working the margins inward, as this would provide less interference for his mutagen Geiger-counter. Leo had wanted to attack the bull’s-eye of the targeted area first in hopes of picking up a greater quantity of the flasks faster, but he’d assented to the more logical, methodical approach in the end, as the confusion often netted them nothing but evenings of frustration.

On top of that, twice now, a blip they had been unable to pin down one night had simply gone off the radar the next. “Maybe it‘s just Donnie’s hunk-of-junk tracker flipping out,” Raph suggested.

“It’s not the tracker… it’s still picking up the radiation signatures just fine,” Donnie replied. “Someone else could be picking them up.”

Leo looked concerned. “Like who?”

“The Kraang?” Mikey guessed, but Donnie shook his head.

“The Kraang don’t seem to care about the lost mutagen, and they’re pretty free with it… they can just harvest more from the kraathatrogons. Plus, the more mutagen out there, the more potential mutations,” Don explained, crossing the rooftop, looking only at the tracker. “It’s this way…”

“Casey, hang a left at the next corner,” Leo relayed over the phone.

“Left turn, check,” the tinny voice on the other end copied.

“So… bored…” Mikey complained.

Raph chimed in, “I’m with Mikey. This is the worst scavenger hunt ever. Are we even getting close yet?”

The blips on the mutagen tracker increased their speed and pitch as Donnie approached the opposite side of the building. “Yes, matter of fact. There should be one right around here!”

“South side of the building; Donnie thinks he’s got something,” Leo directed Casey.

Casey turned the corner. It led to what looked like a lowly-trafficked side-street. He looked around, not spotting it immediately, but then seeing a slight greenish glow coming from the curb. He knelt and pulled the cylinder of mutagen out of the storm drain. He was about to notify Leo that he’d found it when an alarm sounded from a small grocery shop on the main street. Casey reached back and drew his hockey stick. “Well! Maybe tonight’s gonna see some action after all!” He skidded around the corner, mutagen under his arm, in time to see something furry retreating around the following corner.  


“What’s he doing?!” Raph hollered, looking over the ledge.

April appeared next to him. “Casey, you idiot!”

“What is it?!” Leo ran up next to her.

“He just went chasing someone around the corner, carrying a container of mutagen!”

“And if it breaks, he’ll be mutated!” Mikey reasoned.

“Let’s—“ Leo started, breaking off his order as a lanky, furred figure appeared on the roof two buildings ahead of them. It appeared to be carrying a number of bags, and judging by the green gleam in its eyes, it had spotted them. Surprisingly, it raised an arm in a greeting wave.

“Oh, no! We’re too late!” Mikey fretted, but April interrupted his panic.

“No… that’s not Casey!”

Raph shot her a look. “How can you tell?”

She pointed as the mutant put a foot up on the ledge of the building it stood on. “For one thing, Casey doesn’t wear gum boots!”

“Come on,” Leo yelled, launching his grappling hook at a billboard across the street.

 

Casey rounded the corner. He didn’t know what he was expecting, exactly, but a seven-and-a-half foot seagull wasn’t it. He swallowed, then dropped into a fighting stance. “Freeze, creep!” The gull regarded him with one eye. Casey swung his stick, one armed. The giant bird mutant caught it in a ham-sized fist, yanked it out of his hand, and threw it down the street. Completely nonplussed, the gull began climbing the fire escape behind it, revealing a large duffel bag slung over each shoulder.

“Rock, Frito, hurry it up!” a voice hollered from the rooftop as the sound of approaching sirens reached them.

Casey furrowed his brow and slammed his mask down. “Okay, if that’s the way you wanna pl—wha..?” He felt a tug at the container under his arm. He grabbed the end of the container before it was pulled away. He turned to see the furry, black-masked face of a very short mutant. “Drop it, pipsqueak!” Casey demanded.

The little raccoon yanked firmly on the container. “You shouldn’t have that!” it said in the high-pitched voice of a young boy. “It’s dangerous!”

Casey lifted the canister high in the air with both hands. The raccoon came off the ground with it, hanging off the other metal cap and looking shocked about it. He kicked at Casey, not managing to reach him. Casey shook the canister around, the little mutant flopping around like a rag doll, but refusing to give up. Letting go with one hand, the hockey player reached behind him for his baseball bat. The raccoon boy looked threatened and flinched, but didn’t relinquish his hold on the container.

“Frito, drop it and get up here!” called the voice from the rooftop.

“You too, Jones,” Leo echoed.

Casey looked up incredulously. “Wh—seriously?”

“Come on, the police are gonna be here any second.”

Grudgingly, Casey retrieved his hockey stick and followed the raccoon kid up the nearest fire escape. No sooner than he had cleared the roof than two patrol cars skidded to a stop outside the grocery store. He looked around to see a total of eight mutants on the roof. It was a decidedly awkward feeling.

“Love to talk with you all, but we gotta ditch the heat first… Can you meet us there in a few?” The scrawny cat mutant, wearing gum boots and blue jeans pointed, to a business complex that stuck out from the rest of the surrounding area.

“Not a problem,” Leo smirked. “Guys, move out.”

“Aww yea!” Mikey was on the move immediately, leaping to the next roof. “Finally something to do!” The rest of the group was off after him moments later.

As they ran, the huge white shape of the seagull flapped effortlessly past them, the mutant cat and Frito clutching its legs.

“Damn,” Raph commented, rather awed, “I didn’t think that guy would even get in the air…”

The route was naturally shorter as the gull flew, but it didn’t take long for the ninja crew to reach the building. Even Casey was keeping up, managing the leaps from roof to roof on his skates admirably, though when it came to the tall business building, with its lack of external fire escape, he had to call for an assist, much to his shame. He clung, chagrinned, to Raph’s shell as the turtle hoisted them up the side of the building. “Jones… you weigh… a fucking ton!” Raphael panted.

“This isn’t exactly a picnic for me either, ya know, being strapped to you like this… it’s embarrassing. Can’t you go any faster?”

“Yeah, hurry up, slowpokes!” Mikey jeered, swinging past them.

“Come on, Raph, you’re always last!” Donnie added, running along the side of the building, April following on his heels with a giggle.

Raph growled aggressively. “Enough is enough!” He grabbed Casey by his shoulder padding and bodily threw him the last few yards to the top of the building.

Casey didn’t have time to react outside of, “What the f—WHOA!!” as he was pitched onto the roof. “Ooomph! Goddammit, Raph!”

Raphael smirked as he hauled himself over the side. “You wanted faster.”

“Warn a guy when you’re gonna do that!” Casey seethed at him.

“Raph!” Leo chided, heaping on the patronization for show. “What did I tell you about throwing team members?!”

The cat approached them, the seagull following him. The little raccoon hung back. “Holy shit, you guys are fast! And the jumping…! I kinda thought turtles were… ya know…”

“…awesome?” Raph finished.

“…intimidating?” tried Leo

“…incredibly handsome?” Mikey added charmingly.

The cat chuckled. “And what’s with all the weapons?” He stopped himself. “I’m sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself and forgetting my manners. You can call me Cav. The big one there is Rock.”

“His name is ‘Rock?’” Leo queried.

“RAWK!” screeched Rock. “RAWK! RAWK!”

Cav gave a noncommittal gesture with his head. “ ‘s all he can say. Writing’s also kind of out for him. Seems pretty intelligent, though, and doesn’t mind being our mode of transportation most of the time. And the kid back there is Frito.”

“And I’m Leonardo. My brothers, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello, and our friends April and Casey.”

“And you’re all, what, samurai, then?” Cav queried.

“Ninjas. Samurai wear armor,” Donnie corrected.

“Huh. Well, whatever… Are you hungry? We’d be happy to share with our new-found mutant brethren.” He nodded charmingly toward April. “Er... and sistren.” Rock dropped the duffel bags from his shoulders and Cav began rooting through them. “Let’s see what we got here… Chili, beans, peaches, cereal… What do ninja turtles eat, anyway?”

“Pizza, mostly,” Mikey volunteered.

“Pizza?!” Cav snorted derisively. “What lap of luxury do you live in?!”

Casey cut in. “Are we all just ignoring the fact that these guys just robbed that supermarket?!”

“You do what you have to do to live, kid,” Cav told him flatly, popping the top off a tin of catfood. “Ahh, salmon…” He licked at it. “Even if we had money, you think we could just walk through the front doors without everyone running and screaming? Even when you’re as cute as Frito, people freak out at mutants. It’s not like a mutant can show up at a soup kitchen. Especially three days in a row, trust me, I tried that one… barely escaped with my life.“

“It’s still stealing… just because you need it doesn’t make it right… Leo, back me up, man,” Casey begged.

Leo looked back at him with a tight-lipped expression. “It may not be the most honorable course, but sometimes, there just aren’t better options. We’re lucky enough to have Master Splinter’s benefits… others aren’t so fortunate.”

The whiskers on one side of Cav’s face rose as he chuckled. “Kafka’s gonna love you!” He turned back to the one human on the roof. “If it’s any consolation to you… Casey, was it?... we only take what we need, and we never hit the same place twice. And these places aren’t going to be bankrupted by losing a couple hundred dollars in canned goods. They have insurance for that. They don’t lose a thing.”

“Hey, runt! Get off!” Raph’s voice sounded angrily as Frito attempted to pull the mutagen away from him. Frito skittered backward as the turtle bent down, baring his teeth at the young mutant.

Cav rolled his eyes. “Frito, leave it alone! It’s theirs.”

“It’s dangerous! We gotta get rid of all that stuff!”

Cav only replied with a nonchalant “Heh” from one raised lip.

Donnie half-knelt beside the raccoon. “We know it’s dangerous, Frito. That’s why we’re out here, picking it all up. Then I take it to my lab and make a retro-mutagen out of it.”

Frito wrinkled his forehead. “What’s that?”

“It’s … a medicine that turns mutants back into people,” he tried to explain in simple terms. “…or whatever else they were before.”

Frito’s eyes lit up. “Can I have some?”

Donnie gave him a sad look. “We don’t have any more right now, and it takes a lot of mutagen to make the medicine, and it takes a really long time. And right now, I’m making a special kind to fix April.”

“Because she’s your girlfriend,” Frito deduced. “Then are you gonna make some to make you a person again too? So you can go get married?”

Donnie sighed and looked away. The kid was cute, but boy, did he hit on a sensitive subject. “No… the rest of us were turtles to start with.”

“Maybe if she kisses you, you’ll turn into a prince!” he said in a conspiratorially loud stage-whisper.

Don whispered back, “I think that only works with frogs.” They both looked over at April, who was sitting against the building ledge. She looked back amusedly and stood. “Should I go for it?” The little raccoon nodded fervently, smiling ear to ear.

Donnie stood and sidled his way toward her, making a big show of being a ball of nerves. April obligingly leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He blinked. “I don’t think it worked!” he reported. “Maybe you better try the other side.” He turned his head, and April planted a kiss on that cheek as well. “No? Oh well… I guess we’re gonna have to—“ He turned to face her and pressed his beak into hers as she did the same and they kissed deeply. April lifted one leg at the knee, and Donnie dipped her low before setting her back on her feet. Frito was in hysterics, laughs mixed with the occasional raccoon chitter. Rock, watching, also emitted a loud laugh-like cry. Donatello shrugged, sighing. “Sorry, kid… I tried.”

April swatted at him playfully. “You can’t turn into something you are already, silly turtle!” She added to Frito, “He’s always been a prince to me!”

Mikey clasped his hands under his chin. “That was _so adorable!_ ” he fawned. Raph motioned putting a finger down his throat.

Leo grinned flatly. “Okay, you two… if you’re done, it’s getting late; we need to head home.”

“Which way are you guys headed?” Cav asked.

“A bit south, mostly west,” Leo said, not revealing any specific details about the lair.

“Well, as long as we’re headed in the same direction, there’s someone along the way I’d like to introduce you to.” He discarded the empty catfood can on a corner of the roof, zipped the duffel bags again and helped Rock shoulder them, then picked up his own bags. “Follow us.” Cav and Frito grabbed onto the mutant gull’s legs again, and Rock took to the air.

 

Rock touched down on top of a long bank of row-houses in a residential neighborhood. Cav and Frito took the duffel bags from his shoulders. Rock made no indication that he was coming along. Casey arrived minutes later, having had to take an alternative route as soon as they’d run out of flat rooftops for him to skate on.

The cat mutant made some impressive leaps to the railing of a small balcony and then to a hedge. Frito, however, had no such catlike grace. He tossed the duffel down into the hedge and climbed down slowly, picking out footholds with his clawed toes and clinging for dear life as he reached for the next. In the next moment, though, he lost his footing and fell.

A turtle exploded out of the bushes, intercepting Frito’s fall and catching the raccoon kid in his arms. Raphael set the boy back on his feet. “What the fuck, Cav… letting the kid climb down a building by himself?! He’s gonna get himself killed!” Raph scolded as the other turtles emerged from their camouflaged hiding spots on roof-peaks, in trees, behind bushes.

Cav looked nonplussed. “I keep telling him he needs to learn to jump. He needs to be more independent.”

“So, you don’t actually care if he independently falls to his death… That’s assuring…”

“We learn by doing. He’ll learn by making mistakes.”

“Yeah, unless his mistakes kill him first… then he doesn’t learn a damn thing!” Raph snapped.

“It’s a rough world. He needs to learn to take care of himself, and as soon as possible,” Cav replied with a cool look. He pressed the doorbell twice, paused a moment, then pressed it again.

“At that, why didn’t you just have the gull land on the lawn?” Casey criticized. “Then he wouldn’t have had to climb down at all!”

“Rock… isn’t comfortable here. You’ll understand momentarily, I think.”

“Isn’t it late to visit someone?” Leo expressed a bit of concern.

“Ms. Nora’s become a bit of a night owl… she doesn’t mind the late-night visits, circumstances as they are. Ah,” he said as the door unlocked and swung partway open. Two cats dashed out. A third remained, arching and rubbing against the doorframe.

A hooded figure appeared in the low light. “Well! Hello, Macavity! I was hoping you’d visit again soon… we’re running out of the Tuna Vittles…” The voice was that of an aged woman.

“Hi, Mom,” Cav greeted, stepping through the door with his duffel and motioning for the others to come in as well. “I’ve brought some new friends for you to meet.”

The woman tsked. “I wish you had warned me… I could have cleaned!” She shut the door once everyone was inside (nudging the indecisive cat in with a foot), turned on a light that barely lit the small entryway, and drew the hood of her robe back, revealing a cat’s face. Her fur was a gray mackerel pattern, similar to Cav’s, and her eyes likewise yellow. “Now, look at you all! A whole turn of turtles!” She bent down as Frito scampered over to her. “Hello, Frito, darling. There’s fresh cookies in the cookie jar,” she smiled down to him, returning his eager hug. “Why don’t you bring them out so we can all have some?”

“You bet, Mrs. Jorginson!” The little raccoon immediately headed for the kitchen.

“Everyone, this is my mom, Nora.” Cav made introductions of the rest of the group rather hastily and then excused himself to the kitchen to unload one of the duffel bags into the cupboards.

Nora made herding motions at the group. “Well, come in, come in! Sit down! Macavity, would you put the kettle on?” Nora ushered everyone into her living room, which was furnished with a sofa and two chairs, and two large cat-palaces. Half a dozen cats occupied the two climbers, the top of the old television, and a bureau behind the couch. She instructed Casey and Mikey to pull chairs in from the dining set in the next room. Raph opted to sit on the stairs, as the place was quite cramped with all the company. His lap was instantly occupied by a calico cat.

“It’s always a pleasure to meet other mutants!“ Nora bubbled. “It’s difficult to find company when we’re forced to be recluses. You’re lucky to have a human friend.”

“Eh, Casey’s not bad, as allies go,” Leo replied. “Though if only we’d had the same pleasant experiences as you with mutants… about every other mutant we’ve encountered has had it in for us, with few notable exceptions.” He sought to change the subject. “So… Cav is your son?”

Nora laughed musically. “I’m ‘Mommy’ to all of my kitties. Macavity, or ‘Cav’ as he likes to call himself, is one of the many strays I took in. About, oh, sixteen years ago, I was taking him to the vet’s.   I had just taken him out of his cat carrier when something above us on the rooftops shattered, and we were splashed with this green glop…”

“Mutagen,” Donatello noted. “And judging by the time scheme, from the same batch that created us and Master Splinter.”

Nora nodded and continued. “I became… rather catlike, and he became rather humanlike. He’s an independent one… would rather be out on his own, of course… typical tomcat. But he does take care of us… me and his non-mutant brothers and sisters, that is. And he’s taken the other mutants under his wing… Frito and Rock and Kafka… Has he taken you to meet Kafka yet? He’s quite the character. Very intellectual fellow…”

Frito came around with the cookie jar, one already stuffed in his own mouth, as Cav brought around cups and saucers and a large kettle of tea. As Raph was last to get a cookie, Frito set the jar on the stairs and sat a couple steps up from the turtle. Raph regarded him out of the corner of his eye.

“Grizabella likes you,” Frito observed. “She doesn’t like anybody.” He reached down toward the elderly cat. The cat put her ears back and swatted at his hand.

“Yeah, well…” Raph replied, mollifying the cat with a scratch behind the ears, “that makes two of us.” After a moment of stony silence, he looked askance at the raccoon mutant and asked, “What kind of dumb name is ‘Frito’ anyway?”

Frito looked amused rather than insulted. “That’s not my real name anyway.”

“So what’s your real name?”

“It’s Jamal,” he said, bobbing his head for emphasis.

“Why ‘Frito’, then? D’you eat a lot of corn chips?”

“No… Cav says it’s because I’m a raccoon, so I have a bandit mask on.”

Raph stared at him for a long time. “I don’t get it.”

“Me neither,” Frito-Jamal said, shaking his head.

Raphael reached into his belt. “Look, the next time Cav tries to make you climb something, use these.” He handed over his climbing claws to the kid. “They’re a little big for a nine year-old, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Whoa…” Jamal marveled, slipping the claw onto his hand. It slid down to his wrist.

“Keep your weight against the wall. Then you jam this part into the wall, and pull yourself up or lower yourself down.”

“Cool!” The raccoon kid was instantly engrossed with the new equipment, clearly itching to get to a wall as soon as possible. Raph saw that he wasn’t going to get a thank you, though nor did he want the empty words of one. He stood, catching the cat and setting it on the floor as the others finished their conversation with Cav and Nora. Hands were shaken at the door again as everyone prepared to leave. April spoke aside with the elderly cat mutant for a moment, and the latter looked enchanted and motioned April to follow her up the stairs.

Cav opened the door and checked the street for movement before exiting, Frito tagging along and starting to use his new gift to scale the wall. He was up it in no time, despite struggling with the size of the grips. “Where’d he get those?!” the alley cat marveled.

Donatello looked to Raph. “You gave him your shuko spikes?”

“Don’t worry, you can make me more,” he said, clapping Donnie on the shoulder. “The kid needs ‘em more than I do.”

“Thanks… because I needed more work, you know…” Donnie grumbled.

“Aw, you’re welcome, man, anytime!” Raph teased.

Cav was talking to Leonardo again. “You know the bank on 32nd street?”

“Yeah, we go by there a lot,” Leo nodded.

“If you wanna meet us there tomorrow, I’d like to take you to our home.”

Leo thought it over. On one hand, they had a mission. On the other, how many mutant allies did they have? In the end, he figured strengthening relations with new friends was the best option. “I think we can arrange that. See you there, about 9:00?”

“Nine it is! See you then, my friends!” With that, he scaled the building with a series of well-balanced leaps, though the gum boots did nothing for his stealth. He joined Rock and Frito. Rock crowed “RAWK!” down at them once and took off.

Donnie waited for April to emerge from the house, concealing himself in the shadow of the hedge. She appeared a couple minutes later, hugging Nora warmly in the doorway as she left. She picked Donnie out almost immediately, despite his excellent camouflage, and the two of them took to the roofs with the others.

“So what were you and Nora doing?” he asked.

April grinned excitedly. “She let me raid her scrap-basket!”

“Her what?” They jumped a roof together effortlessly.

“She quilts… didn’t you notice the one on the sofa, and the one on the wall?”

“…no?” Donnie wasn’t prepared for a pop quiz on Ms. Jorginson’s décor..

“Well, she does… and she let me raid her scraps to make the curtains with.”

“You’re still planning that, are you? I’m telling you Raph’s just going to tear them out…”

“He won’t.”

“You’re gonna be upset.

“I am not!”

The two of them bickered about April’s little project nearly the whole way home, to the point where Raph snapped at them about it. “Blah blah BLAH! Do you guys ever shut up?! Jeez… I wish I had external ears so I could stick my fingers in ‘em…”

“Sorry, Raph!” They both apologized at the same time, without intending to.

Raph flinched. “And cut that out!!”

“That one was just an accident!” Donnie hollered back, somewhat apologetically.

 

It was nearly 2:00 before they reached the lair, having bid farewell to Casey at the turn to his apartment. Splinter appeared as he heard them return. “You are late! Where were you?”

“Sorry, Sensei,” Leo apologized for them all. “We met some new mutants who, I think, could be allies potentially, and we were getting to know them a bit.”

“More mutants… interesting. At least you did not bring them home with you this time.”

“No, Sensei… I don’t think you’d like meeting Cav or Nora in person… since… they’re cats.”

Splinter bristled reflexively, as Leo had predicted he would. “And you would be right!”

“…and there’s Rock, who’s a big seagull, but he’s non-verbal, and Frito, who’s a nine-year-old who’s been turned into a raccoon. We’re supposed to meet up with them tomorrow and meet some other mutant named Kafka.”

The giant rat nodded. “You must find out all you can about these new acquaintances. There are times when knowing your friend can be more critical than knowing your foe. But now… you have all had a very long day. Let us sleep.”

Donnie sought April out as she was laying out her futon in the dojo space. She gave him a weary look, but smiled. “Not tonight, Dear one…”

Donnie sat beside her with a disappointed expression. “But you said when we got back from patrol…”

She rolled her eyes. “That was before we unexpectedly ended up spending a couple hours with other mutants. I’m so exhausted, I can barely keep my eyes open… and you know how dangerous that is…” Nonetheless, she stared into his eyes for a moment, giving him a mental cuddle, rubbing beaks with him before pulling away. Donnie also caught the thought that in the morning, she wanted her wonderful prince to fuck her brains out. It aroused him, but he also became apprehensive. But, she’d done fine today… only once. Maybe her little distraction with decorating the subway car was a good thing, in fact… keeping her mind off the continual need for sex.

 _See?_ he convinced himself, _She’s holding it back. She can manage_.

Her eyes closed, and her breathing became more relaxed. He kissed her beak gently and made to get up, but the touch of her hand stopped him. “Donnie… stay with me?” He was about to ask why, but before he could , she said, “I don’t really have a reason… I just want you near me now.”

“All right,” he said, giving her a soft grin, and then a kiss. He lay his head on the edge of her futon and let his eyes fall closed, sleep beckoning. She shifted, draping a leg over his, then she stroked his head (avoiding his wounds) until he fell asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I try to come up with chapter titles that work on more than one level. Here, for instance, the title applies not only to Cav and his crew, but to the continual failure of the electrical connection.
> 
> And here's our first appearance of OCs in the story. OCs get a bad rep at times, but they _can_ be done well, like most other things, if enough care and craft is invested in them.


	11. Beneath the Surface

                Chapter 11 – Beneath the Surface

 

Donnie awoke alone, lying face-down, an arm spread over the unoccupied futon. He lay still for a while, hoping April would return. Instead, two rat feet and the hem of Splinter’s kimono entered his view. Donnie gulped and sat up to his knees, giving a slight bow, feeling once again as though he had been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. “Sensei, ohayo gozaimas!”

“Ohayo gozaimas,” Splinter returned. “Donatello, do you wish to explain to me why you are sleeping on the floor?” His tone was unreadable. Donnie blushed.

“April wanted me to stay with her,” he admitted bashfully, looking at the rug.

“What I mean to say is, why did you not use any bedding of your own?”

Donnie’s jaw worked open and shut like a landed trout. At long last, he managed to say, “Um…”

Splinter gave a kind chuckle. “I believe the cushions from your own futon should suffice. You have grown to be a responsible young man, my son, and I am proud of you. April, as well, has reached an age where she is capable of making her own choices and foreseeing their outcome. Destiny has bestowed a rare, fleeting opportunity upon the two of you to find happiness… who should I be to interfere?”

“So… Sensei… you don’t mind..?”

“Leonardo has informed me of his concerns about April.”

Donnie’s cheeks colored again and he looked away. “Oh.” And here came the bad news. “You want us to stop... errr.. uh…”

“Quite the contrary,” grinned the ninja master. “I believe your special bond helps in stabilizing her emotional state. The closer you are, the more your emotions temper hers, and the longer she can hold out physically. I realize this may take time away from developing April’s cure, thus I am excusing you from half of your usual training and other duties for the time being. I realize how happy you are together, nevertheless, the sooner April can return to her normal way of life, the better it will be for her.”

Donnie sat, pleasantly stunned at his sudden turn of fortune from the previous day. Master Splinter made to return to his room. “Sensei, you’re the best!” Donatello called after him.

Splinter turned his head back, giving Donnie that warm chuckle once again. “You are welcome.”

His master gone, he rose and folded the futon, placing it in its cupboard for the day. Then he headed to his lab to check on the mutagen.

The centrifuge was silent and still. “Wh… again?!” Frustrated, he picked up the loose cord and gave it a hard look. He checked the outlet as he plugged it back in again… it didn’t seem to wiggle, nothing felt loose, but for the extra security, he placed an X of duct tape over it. It simply falling out again was out of the question.

April appeared from around the corner of the entryway to the lab. Donnie looked up and gave her a coy grin. “Good morning, Princess.”

She smirked back at him, striding over. “Good morning, my handsome prince!” He pulled her down to sit on his lap and they kissed and nibbled at each other for a few minutes.  

“You were up early,” Donnie commented between a last few quick pecks.

“Yeah… I had an essay I needed to finish and send in, and I had to call Dad and have him bring me some sewing supplies. He’s coming by later this afternoon. I figured I’d just let you sleep. Did Splinter freak out?”

“Strangely enough, no. In fact, he seems to approve of us sleeping together.”

“Great!” April exclaimed, hopping up and grabbing Don by the wrists. ”Let’s go, then!”

“I mean, next to each other!” Donnie tried to backpedal as he was yanked to his feet. “Though he _did_ say he wants us to synergize more…” He added, though he didn’t say why. “And he gave me some extra time off to work on your retro-mutagen.”

“Oh, really?” she asked, her tone a bit unsure. “That’s… nice of him.”

“Sooo?” he said, seeking her gaze.

She closed her eyes and turned away from him. “Not just yet.”

“April!” Donnie whined. “Yesterday morning, you couldn’t get enough contact… Now you’re avoiding me.”

“I’m not avoiding you… Right now, though, I want to see how we can surprise each other.” She tugged him out of the lab by the hands.

“Oh?” he asked.

“See there,” she said with a smirk. “Already working! Come help me…”

Donnie rolled his eyes. “Ah, there it is…” he said, bounding up the steps after her.

“What?”

“You always do that.”

“Do _what_?”

“Ask for help when you want to have sex.”

She looked a bit taken aback. “I do?”

“Yeah… you’re always, ‘Help me, Donnie,’ or, ‘So help me, I want you,’ or ‘Come help me with this thing…’”

She paused, putting a finger to her chin as she thought. “Huh,” she shrugged. “And that was a terrible impression of me!”

He looked at her flatly. “What do you want, I’m a ninja, not an impersonator…”

She suddenly looked startled, mouth open in a gasp and pointed at his chest. He looked down to see what she was pointing at. “What is it?” he asked.

“You!” she said in an awed voice, pressing her finger into his plastron, then booping him in the nose with it as he looked down again. “…are it!” she yelled and bounded down the tunnel as he stood planted, confused at what had just happened.

“Ohhh, I’m gonna get you, missy!” Donnie yelled playfully, leaping after her. The two of them leapt through the abandoned subway tunnels, running on and springing off of the walls. April was light and surefooted in her movements, but Donatello, more experienced and able to put more power into his leaps, caught up to her easily. Even so, he let her gain a little ground on him when he felt himself getting too close to catching her.

He was expecting her to dodge when he launched himself at her, but she landed badly, slightly turning her ankle, and in that critical moment, Donnie could see he was going to hit her. “Look out!!” he screamed, pulling into his shell. She gasped, seeing the turtle-projectile flying at her, and ducked into her own shell just before he impacted her. The two shells collided, clopping together twice like a pair of coconut halves, and bounced end over end down the tunnel several yards before stopping. Both turtles emerged, unharmed, but with eyes spinning.

“You okay?” Donnie called to her, not moving.

“Yeah… I’m fine…” she replied dizzily.

“Good. You’re it.”

“I forfeit.”

“D’ssat mean I win?” he grinned at her, reaching for her with one arm.

“Yes… a winner is you.” She sat up, pulling him up by the hand he extended toward her, then ran the opposite hand down the side of her carapace and huffed. “I think I chipped my shell…”

“Lemme see…” He said, crunching through the flint gravel bed of the train tracks on his knees to examine her shell. “Ah, it’s not bad. We can file that out.” He spun her toward himself and kissed her gently. “We’re gonna have to come up with some foreplay activities that aren’t full-contact sports…”

“That or move the subway car a little closer.”

“Again… Raph’s prerogative. Though, really, I can’t say as I’d mind it being closer… _not_ having to walk half a mile to it would be nice.”

The two of them got up and walked the last couple hundred yards to the appropriated subway car. Donnie clicked on the single light. “So… surprises, you say?”

“Yep,” she replied simply. “Kneel down,” she commanded with a sideways nod toward the mattress. He knelt as ordered, and she stood beside him, reaching her hands around his neck. She nibbled at his beak, and while he was distracted with kissing her in return, grabbed the knot of his mask and slid it around so that he could no longer see out the eye-holes.

“Hey!” he laughed. “April!” When he heard nothing for several moments, he started to get antsy. “…April?”

She said nothing, but he felt a gentle stroke to the back of his neck. The following, across his biceps. The next touch he felt was to his thighs… first her hands, and then… _Holy fucking Darwin… was that her tongue?!_ He nearly fell over backward, shivers racing through his whole body. More shivers followed as she blew across the wet streak her tongue had created. Then, she was gone again.

He listened for her, but Splinter had trained her well; she didn’t make a sound… she was so stealthy! He felt so helpless… still, it was a wonderful kind of torture… as long has she hadn’t just left him there. She hadn’t, had she? Seconds dragged out like hours, nerve-wracking, as he awaited her next move.

It came in the form of beautiful agony that made his neck arch and his eyes roll back in his skull. How she’d managed to get both hands under his shell without touching him anywhere else, he never knew, but the touch to both sides of that delicate membrane robbed him of the ability to breathe. When he finally let the breath out, it came as a deep moan. All the blood left the upper half of his body, going to fill the giant, eggplant-colored thing that slid out from beneath his shell.

And there were her hands on it… and there was her tongue again, up and down and around the whole length of him. He shuddered, trying to keep control as a bit of pre-cum leaked from the end of his cock. April smeared it around his glans with the flat of her hand. She flicked the tip with her tongue, making him bite his bottom lip against the pleasure. She took her hands away, but she wasn’t done torturing him yet.

“Who’s your princess?” she asked in a vicious tone.

“You are…” he gasped, breathing heavily now.

“Not good enough. Say my name!”

“You are, April,” he moaned obediently. She gave his cock a lick, and he felt the pressure in him building even further.

“And who’s my boy-toy?” she asked, stroking him to keep him hard.

“I am…” he replied when he caught his breath.

“Ah-ah…” she warned.

“I am, April,” he corrected hastily. She rewarded him with another lick, which made the tightness in his organ even worse.

“Do you want to cum in me?”

Hmph… that should have been obvious. “Yes, April!” He was rewarded with another sensation entirely; she was rubbing her ass up and down his hard length, which had to be an acrobatic feat, given her shell.

“Do you think you _deserve_ to cum in me?” she said, with a cruel edge to her voice.

He didn’t know how to answer that, and he didn’t have enough blood flow to his brain to be able to think about it properly. He gasped, shaking his head.

“Time’s a’wasting…” she warned, swinging his dick back and forth, clutched lightly by her buttocks. “Tick.. tock… tick… tock…”

God, she could be mean when she wanted to be! He finally took a gamble and queried, “No, April…?”

She gave an assenting, “Hmm,” adding, “That’s right. You don’t. But I’ll let you anyway.” With that, she lined the tip of his shaft up with her cloaca and eased down onto him, her insides feeling extremely wet. His ejaculation was immediate, and like a bomb going off. He filled her so full, he could feel part of it dribbling down his length. He collapsed to his hands as he pulled out. He knew she couldn’t be satisfied with that, brief as he’d been in her, but he would have to have time to recover before he was able to make the effort, and he wasn’t sure if she was done with him yet.

She lifted his chin with one finger. “You did well enough, pet.” She paused, as if waiting. “Say ‘Thank you.’”

“Thank you, April,” he replied immediately, almost fearfully.

She kissed him gently, then turned his mask back around to its proper position, fastidiously smoothing it. “There. Did you enjoy Princess April?”

Donnie put a finger to his chin. “Well, the sex wasn’t bad…”

“But?”

“You know, Princess April is a real bitch!” April started giggling at this, and he joined her after a moment, nudging her with his beak.

She looked at him expectantly. “Now it’s your turn.”

“My turn?” he queried.

“…to surprise me. Besides, you owe me an orgasm.”

He sat thinking for a while. “Ah, I think I’ve got it…” He untied his mask.

“Oho… revealing your secret identity to me, are you?”

Donnie sniggered in response. “Yeah, because no one would ever guess we were actually turtles under these masks, you know.”

He moved toward her, mask in hand, but she stopped him to look him over. “You look so different without it…”

“I know… I just look like a dork without it.”

April shook her head. “It’s just different… I’m so used to seeing you with it on. But you’re still my beautiful Donnie either way.” She leaned in, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. He returned it with a loving smile.

“Here, let’s see how you look…” He wrapped the strip of fabric around her face and tied it off loosely under her ponytail. She batted her eyes at him and he melted. “You’re so adorable…”

April pulled out her phone and snapped a shot of herself, then pulled Donnie next to her for one of them both. “Not bad… purple isn’t the best color on me, but these are definitely keepers…” She looked back at him. “Is this it, then?”

“Don’t be silly… I haven’t even started yet!” He gave her beak a nudge and twisted his mask so she couldn’t see out the eye-holes.

“Hey! No copying!” she protested.

Don chuckled. “I’m not… I just think you might enjoy this more if you can’t see what I’m doing.” He laid her down on the mattress gently, then kissed her cheek, then the side of her head, then nibbled down her neck. Not stopping there, he planted a line of kisses over her shoulder and down her arm. He turned her hand over after kissing the back, then licked the palm and sucked on each of her fingers.

Her mouth fell open, and he imagined her eyes, beneath the mask, lust-lidded. He was rewarded with a pleasured gasp as he traced the upper edge of her plastron with his tongue, his hands resting on that strange sculpt in her shell where her petite human breasts would be. He continued his ministrations on her other arm, then repositioned himself and picked up one of her feet. She let out a shriek and tried to kick as he licked the arch of her foot, but he held it firm.

“Are we ticklish?” he asked teasingly and gave her foot another swift swipe of his tongue, with a similar result.

“Donnie, stooopp!” she squealed, trying her best to pull away from him.

He chortled a bit at her plight. She looked so cute when she struggled, but he didn’t want to overdo it either. “All right… back to business, then…” He pulled her foot back to his mouth and sucked each of her toes as they curled in ticklish protest, then kissed his way up to her knee and spread her legs to kiss the inside of her thigh. She panted and quivered, but he still had one leg left to administer love to. He kissed her toes, then nibbled across the arch, sending her into convulsions of laughing screams. Again, he nibbled from the top of her foot to her knee, then kissed his way across her outer thigh. He turned her leg to lick her inner thigh, once again eliciting deep, anticipatory breaths from her, and goosebumps as he blew lightly across the moistness. Turnabout was fair play, after all.

He spread her wider, gazing down at the closed nub of her cloaca. He bent and gave the side of it a tenuous lick. April moaned, her bud clenching. “Donnie?” she queried achingly. She sat up on one elbow, pulling his mask up past one of her eyes. “Can I be in you for this part?”

He leaned forward on his hands to look lovingly into her revealed eye. “Of course you can, Sweetheart…” he replied softly, merging with her mind. He kissed her tenderly, then slid his mask back over her eye and turned his attention back to her cloaca.

He licked his lips, nervousness suddenly gripping him. _No pressure…_ he thought, forgetting that she could also hear him.

 _You don’t have to…_ she thought, though her disappointment was evident. But the thought of the pleasure it would bring them both bolstered his reserve. He plunged his tongue into her. She rocked against him, already quite wet. Her moisture spilled out onto his beak. The smell and taste of her pheromones drove him into a frenzy, and he licked her with increased fervor, feeling the pleasure himself. It all but knocked him out, but he kept going. His penis, getting jealous, started bulging insistently once more, but he didn’t have time for it at the moment. April guided him mentally to an especially sensitive spot. He rolled over to tongue it that much harder, and surges of pleasure rushed through her, and through him by extension. She panted harder, reaching a hand down to touch his head, as if to pull him further into her.

She reveled in seeing herself through his eyes as she came. Her ecstasy plowed over them like a shockwave, coming in rolling waves of pleasure after the initial explosion. Donnie lapped at her a few more times to keep her going, then he turned, lifted her, and slid her onto his hardness. He pulled her down by the shell as he thrust upward into her repeatedly. She screamed, and he yelled along as rapture overtook them again. Somewhere in the middle of her third orgasm, he burst, squirting all he had into her a second time.

He retracted from her, and she fell forward onto the mattress, stretching out beside him. _You’re so amazing,_ she thought to him as they both soaked in the afterglow.

 _You did most of the work!_ he retorted. _Still, glad you enjoyed it._

 _Ohhhmygod, did I…_ she sent back with a laugh and a blissed-out sigh. _Can I have my eyes back now?_

He snorted with laughter and untied his mask from her eyes, pulling it taught around his own head and reknotting it. _Hey…_ he poked her mentally. _Don’t fall asleep there… and we should go. I should be working on your cure._

She whined uncooperatively. _Can’t we stay just a little longer?_

He caved in, feeling what a state of comfort she was in. _All right… another few minutes…_.

 

Donatello transferred the first batch of separated mutagen from the centrifuge to a rack and put another batch in to spin. He used a long syringe to transfer the heaviest of the layers—so deeply pink than it was nearly red—to another flask. It was disheartening to see how little there was when he had collected the bottom layer from all ten tubes. He let his head fall against the desk. At least he had learned from his previous experience from making retro-mutagen that it took very little to cause the reversion… just a drop. That was a miracle in itself… it meant he had to produce a fraction of what he had originally produced—and this time, it wasn’t leaving the lair. No chance of Buzzkill Baxter swiping it out of his hands this time! And he had already figured out how to produce retro-mutagen of the garden-variety mutagen, so at least he had something to base April’s retro-mutagen off of.

Still, though… it was such a long process. Donnie went over the checklist he had made, based on his procedure from the previous successful batch of retro-mutagen:

                -separate mutagen layers via centrifugal force

                -extract heaviest layer from solution

                -distill at 70°C in Erlenmeyer flask

                -filter to eliminate film @ top

                -combine with amino acid mix 47B

                -incubate ~52 hours

                -chill @ 10°C -DO NOT OVERCHILL

                -filtrate

                -incubate ~48 hours

                -heat evenly to boiling

 

So much to have to do… and so far, he’d only begun on the first two steps. He wished he had a bank of centrifuges… that would speed the process up substantially. He was cutting the ingredients by half, in hopes of reducing the time it would take to refine the mutagen, but didn’t dare cut it smaller than that in case it started to affect the composition—if the enzymes didn’t cook the same way, he could lose the whole batch. At least if that happened, he had the other container of altered mutagen as a backup.

Hurry up and wait… that was what it came down to… so despite the extra time Splinter had allotted for him to work on the retro-mutagen, he had done all he could for the moment, and headed to the dojo. April was nowhere to be seen… most likely, she was in training with Splinter. But Mikey was there, swatting at the training dummy with his nun-chucks.

“Yo, D! You wanna spar?”

“Sure, man,” Donnie assented, grabbing his bo from the weapon rack. He did a couple of warm-up stretches, then whirled his bo into a starting position. “Ready?”

“Aw, yea! Let’s hit this!” Mikey hollered, whirling his chucks at his brother.

Donnie blocked his first two attacks, knocking the wooden ends away with his bo horizontal in front of him. He went into a forward attack spin for an overhead strike.

Mikey whipped the chain of one of his nun-chucks around the end of his bo and caught the other end, aiming to pull the staff out of Donnie’s hands. “I’ve missed you, D,” he said, eyes not on the fight.

“What’re you talking about? I’ve been here the whole time!” Don replied, yanking his bo out of the loop of chain and aiming a jab at Mike’s foreplating. Mikey leapt backward, dodging.

“Yeah, but now it’s always you _and April_ , you know?” he said, circling as he looked for an opening in Donnie’s defense. “And all I see of ‘you and April’ is you two disappearing out the front door.”

Donnie gave him a somewhat smug look. “I thought you liked it that April and I were an item.” He hooked one of Mikey’s knees as Mikey tried to jump at him, and Mike went down on his back.

He somersaulted backward onto his feet again. “I do! You guys are perfect together!” He pushed Donnie back with a series of fierce diagonal swings. “It’s just…” He paused to jump Donnie’s swing. “… the A-minus Team isn’t the same without you.”

A bit touched, Don gave him a sympathetic smile, then immediately had to duck into his shell as a nun-chuck came at his face. “I guess I owe you some hang-out time once she’s gone.” He sighed, distracted at the thought of her leaving. Mikey wrapped both his ankles at once with his chucks and yanked him off his feet. Donnie went down hard. After a moment, he sat up, resting his arms on his knees. Michelangelo took a seat next to him. “I’m losing her, Mikey,” he said, hanging his head. “I have to send her back, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do without her…”

Mikey let out a scoffing laugh. “Dude, you really think she’d give you up that easy?” Donnie blinked at his brother. “Especially with as close as you guys have gotten… She’s not giving you up without a fight.”

“She has to, Mikey… we have no future.”

Mike glowered at him for a minute. “And you guys call ME the dumb one…” Donnie gave him a stony look in return. “Well, if you’re gonna give up that easily, you probably don’t deserve her.”

“Mikey, We. Can. Not. Be. Together,” Donnie explained slowly, annoyed.

“You just mean you can’t have hot shell-on-shell action.”

Donnie raised an eyebrow at his brother. He had really taken Mikey for more innocent than that. But, they were all growing up, Michelangelo too. And honestly, how innocent had he himself been just a few weeks ago?

“Look, if you love each other because you like being with each other, it’s not gonna matter if you can’t fit inside her. And there’s other things you can do that don’t involve that…”

Donnie blushed. This conversation had suddenly gone someplace really uncomfortable. “Okay, denying ourselves basic pleasures of the flesh aside, what if someday she wants to get married, or move somewhere else? Or have kids? That’s really a dead-end. I’d just be a burden to her… Chaining her to me is almost as bad as chaining her down here for her whole life. I can’t do that to her…”

“You’re smart, though… you’d think of some way to make things work. If she wanted you to, you’d do it, wouldn’t you?”

He thought for a moment. “I don’t know. Not if it’s just going to ruin her chances to be happy later…”

“D… bro… _you_ deserve some happiness too, you know.”

Donatello regarded his brother with a smirk. “How’d _you_ get so wise?”

“Comic books, man,” Mikey said sagely. “Life imitates art.”

A voice called from the entryway. “Hello? Anyone home? April? Boys?”

“April’s Dad…” Donnie identified, getting to his feet. “She mentioned he was coming by today…”

“Hi, Mr. O’Neil!” Mikey called as he and Donnie exited the dojo space.

“Michelangelo, Donatello,” Kirby greeted, shaking hands with the turtles, shifting the box he was carrying to his left arm. “Where’s April at?”

“I think she and Leo are in meditating with Master Splinter… she should be almost through,” Donnie guessed, availing Kirby of the box of supplies. “Come on in, have a seat.”

Mr. O’Neil followed Donnie to the benches, where they both sat down. Donnie set the box on the floor. “How goes the production of the retro-mutagen?”

Donnie sighed. “Slowly and tediously now… but at least it’s something.”

“Good to hear. I got a colleague to forge an excuse for April being absent from school for so long, and as long as her homework keeps coming in in her own handwriting, the school hasn’t been too suspicious… but I’m worried that her teachers or CPS will come by someday and want to actually see her.”

Donnie grimaced. “That could get awkward… I guess you could say she stepped out… or is visiting someone… or that she must’ve run away…”

“Or you could just tell them she turned into a mutant turtle and she’s living in the sewers with a bunch of other mutant turtles,” Mikey added, joining them.

Oh, how quickly that wisdom ebbed away… “NO.” Donnie glared at him.

“Why not? The evidence of that one is irrefutable!”

“Um, because no one will believe it, Mr. Brilliance,” Donnie snapped at him. “But good choice of vocabulary.”

“Thank you,” said Mikey, claiming it as a small victory. He started digging deep into the box. “And what have we here? Ground beef? Canned spinach? Lasagna noodles?” he named off as he pulled the items out.

“That’s because I’m fixing dinner tonight,” April’s voice came from behind them. She stepped down onto the bench and then the floor beside her father. “Hi, Dad,” she greeted, kissing her father on the cheek, then bumped beaks with Donnie as she claimed the box from Mikey. “I’ll be in the kitchen. You’re staying for dinner, aren’t you, Daddy?”

“Of course!” Kirby grinned after her.

Mikey rose with a skeptical look on his face and made to follow her. “Where’re you going?” Donnie asked.

“I do not trust that woman…” he said suspiciously. “I’m no expert at lasagna, but I saw a pack of needles in that box, and I’m pretty sure needles are _not_ a lasagna ingredient!”

“Mikey, she’s doing a sewing project!” Donnie yelled after him, unable to dissuade him from going. He looked back to Mr. O’Neil and rolled his eyes briefly. Mr. O’Neil shared a smile with him.

“How is she adjusting?”

“Like a turtle to water,” Donnie replied, and then realized that that might not have been the best choice of words. He looked apprehensively at April’s father to see if he’d misstepped. Kirby didn’t seem particularly fazed by the turn of phrase though, so he relaxed.

“Good.”

They both sat silently for a few moments. Then a thought entered Donnie’s mind. “I have a psychology question for you, if you don’t mind…” he began carefully.

“Certainly, Donatello. Go ahead…”

Donnie licked his lips, trying to phrase the question as innocently as possible. “What does it mean, generally, when someone keeps saying something, though they’re unaware of doing it?”

“Ahh, that’s basic Freudian psychology. It’s called ‘acting out.’ They’re subconsciously expressing a need or desire for something.”

The turtle nodded. “That’s what I thought.” His brows knit. _Help?_ he thought. _She wants help? What does she want help with? How can I help her?_

“Out of curiosity, why do you ask?”

Donnie panicked. “I… um… er… it’s for a friend. Who is definitely not a girl. And whose name is certainly not April.” _Jesus, Donnie… learn when to stop talking!_ he berated himself.

‘Oh? I wasn’t aware you had more friends…” He paused a moment. “There was that boy in the hockey mask, wasn’t there… when I reverted from my mutation…”

“Oh, right, Casey. I guess you two didn’t get much of a formal introduction then, did you?”

More voices approached from the turnstiles. “What is that smell?? Ohmigod, so good!”

“Somebody’s cooking, and it’s not Mikey… that’s all I know, and that’s all I need to know.”

Donnie nodded at Raph and Casey. “Speak of the devil, the Bash Brothers are back. Where’ve you guys been?”

“Makin’ the Purple Dragons live up to their name, at least until the bruises fade,” Casey replied casually, crashing down on the bench. “Oh hey, Mr. O’Neil!”

“Young man,” Kirby responded, shaking hands with him.

“So, April’s cooking?” Raph deduced. “I didn’t know April could cook…”

“Apparently…”

“Why now? I mean, she’s been here like, a month, and she’s never cooked before…”

Donnie shrugged. “Her dad brought all the ingredients, for one… not like we have everything on hand down here. And maybe she just didn’t want to. After all, if you knew, you’d want her to do it more, wouldn’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but… that’s talent that we could be putting to use, right?”

Don gave Raph a narrow glare. “I’ll talk to her about it. She’s not gonna be here much longer, ya know…”

Raph looked down. “Oh. Right.” After a moment of thought, he added, “Well… she can still come cook for us when she’s human, right?”

Donnie sighed at him.

 

Dinner was a merry affair. With their two guests, there were eight of them at the table. Casey was keeping everyone entertained by recounting his many hockey victories and a few of the more amusing failures.

Splinter was hesitant to try the lasagna, preferring his usual Japanese cuisine to Western cuisine, but April convinced him. “Are you sure, Sensei? Six-cheese blend…”

“Six cheese?” the rat ninja master sniffed curiously as April slid a slice of lasagna before him, then looked miffed as she took the chopsticks out of his hand and replaced them with a knife and fork.

“Trust me, Sensei… it’ll just go better with normal cutlery.”

April’s lasagna—to which she’d acquiesced to Mikey’s insistence on adding pepperoni to the top and dubbing it “pizzzagna”—was declared to be world-class and received a round of applause from the diners.

“April, you’ve GOT to cook for us more often!” Raph insisted. “At least a couple times a week…”

Leo nodded in agreement, mouth full. “This is fantastic…”

Donnie kicked Raph under the table. “I told you I’d ask her about it!” Raph kicked him back, harder. Donnie winced and scowled at him.

“But that’s _my_ job!” Mikey whined.

Raph gave Mike a flat look. “Make that the whole week, in fact, April.”

April gave him a flattered smile, blushing a bit. “I don’t actually like cooking that much…”

His jaw dropped. “You gotta be kidding me!”

“She doesn’t cook at home very much either,” Mr. O’Neil added, “as much as I’d like it if she did…”

“Just now and then,” she affirmed, a bit guardedly. “…but… I guess I could try to cook for you guys a little… as long as I can get Dad or Casey to bring me the ingredients.” Her gaze fell on Raph and Mikey, both staring at her in different sorts of anticipation. “One day a week,” she declared. “And I’ll try to… ‘assist’ Mikey now and again.”

Mikey fist-pumped in triumph while Raphael deflated with an “Aww…”

Casey gave April a wining smile. “Don’t suppose I could get the same arrangement at my place?”

“Wouldn’t count on it,” she told him flatly with a wry smile. “But, I guess I’ll make enough for you too if you happen to show up here.”

As the meal was winding down, Leo pointed out, “It’s nearly 8:00. We should all be geared up and ready to go meet Cav in half an hour, got it? Raph, you and I are on dishes.”

Donnie leaned over to April, kissing her on the cheek. “Thank you, Sweetie, that was really good.” Then he froze, realizing that Mr. O’Neil was staring at them.

“And I believe that’s my cue to go,” Kirby stated plainly, as if ignoring what he’d just seen. “Boys, it’s been a wonderful evening. Thank you,” he said, shaking hands with the turtles, Casey, and Splinter. Donatello and April walked him to the gates, where he shook Donnie’s hand again, bidding them a pleasant night. In an undertone, he added to Donatello, “Just don’t break her heart. That’s all I ask.”

“Not in a million years,” Donnie promised.

April reached up, giving her father a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Happy Anniversary, Daddy,” she said, almost soft enough that Donnie couldn’t hear her. He pretended that he hadn’t for the moment.

“Thank you, Sweetheart. Come home soon,” Kirby said, hugging her back before leaving.

April stood watching until her father was out of sight. She turned and linked immediately with Donatello’s waiting eyes.

 _Your parents’ anniversary… you didn’t tell us you were celebrating…_ he thought to her. Melancholic feelings surrounded him from her.

_It’s just been the two of us for nearly ten years now. I always make Mom’s lasagna for Dad, because she always made it for him for their anniversary dinner._

_But.. you didn’t want to tell anyone about it?_

She shook her head. _It’d just put a damper on things, wouldn’t it, celebrating the anniversary of someone who isn’t there anymore? We tend to keep it to ourselves._ Donnie stepped up behind her and enveloped her in his arms, sending her all the comfort he could muster. He bent his head to cuddle hers. _It’s been so long, Donnie… and it’s like I can barely remember what she was like, and at the same time, I still miss her so much…_ she thought, tears forming in her eyes.

Donnie sifted through her memories for the feelings associated with her mother. The closeness of the love… he had nothing to relate it to. _We had Master Splinter for a father, but we never had a mother._

No, he took it back… he supposed it was something like the soul-touch, and April’s memories of her mother’s love like trying to hold onto that memory of his touching April’s soul.  That, but with the distance multiplied ten years rather than a few days. Just considering it caused a crushing ache in his heart. _I’m so sorry, Sweetheart…_

Her gratitude warmed him. _Thanks for trying to understand._

A wave of desire from her hit him. It pushed at him, getting stronger. _We don’t have time right now, Hotness…_ he pushed back.

“Hmph,” she snorted aloud and crossed her arms.

 _Come on, don’t be like that. Maybe we’ll have time when we get home._ He considered staying connected to her while they went out. After all, they weren’t expecting to meet up with any enemies. But, when _did_ they? No, it wasn’t safe, he decided, despite the fact he was supposed to be spending more time in synergy with April. He stepped out of their link and headed for his lab to check on things before they left.

The centrifuge wasn’t running. “Oh for fuck’s sake!” Donnie bent down to check the outlet, but the tape he had put there was still intact. Instead, the power switch had been turned off. There was no way he could have forgotten to turn it on; he knew he had. Suspicion entered his mind.

“Hey, who’s been in my lab?!” he demanded. He received blank looks from all of his brothers and Casey. “Somebody turned off the centrifuge. I need it to stay on! It’s important!” Leo looked at Mikey. Mikey shrugged and looked at Raph. Raph gave him an apathetic glare in return and rolled his eyes. April wandered up to the group, also looking apprehensively at the other turtles, then back to Donatello.

“Come on, Donnie… you’re gonna miss warm-ups,” Leo called dismissively.

Don growled at being largely ignored by the group, but gave up the fight for the moment and joined the others in the dojo.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you notice the 'help' thing, or did it sneak up on you?


	12. Alliance

            Chapter 12 - Alliance

 

Cav stalked around the roof of the bank, now and then looking over the edge of the building. Rock had perched himself on a water tower on a roof nearby. “Ninja turtles… honestly, who ever heard of such a thing?” Cav muttered to himself. He’d bet himself that he would see them coming, so, intent on seeing their approach, he paced from one side of the roof to another. “I mean, seriously… who teaches martial arts to turtles? …probably not even real ninjas. Those are probably just… like, costumes. Have to be…” He turned around, looking over the edge, and came face to face with Leonardo, crouched on the balustrade. “GAAHH!” He screamed, fur puffing up as he took a swipe at Leo with a clawed hand. Leo executed a flawless backflip on the railing, evading the unintentional attack effortlessly. Cav turned his head slightly and saw the rest of the turtles now on the roof, and their human friend arriving a moment later.

“Dude, Cav, chill… It’s just us, man,” Mikey soothed as Rock let out a mocking seagull laugh.

Cav caught his breath, then licked a paw and slicked back the fur over each ear. “Right… Sorry ‘bout that.”

Leo smirked at him. “Still think they’re just costumes?”

The mutant cat shook his head. “Nope, that’s good enough for me…”   Rock let out another rollicking laugh. Cav turned a scathing glare on him. “And YOU are the worst lookout ever! Get down here!” Rock clapped his beak shut and glided down from the tower, landing on the bank roof. “I figure this’ll be easiest on your human friend, seeing as we tend to stay at the top of the building this time of year.”

Casey shrugged and crouched down to grab onto Rock’s free leg as if riding a giant mutant seagull was no big thing. With all he’d seen recently, nothing could faze him anymore. This was just a weird-ass city these days.

“Now, if you all will follow us… we’re a couple miles in that direction.” Cav pointed diagonally across the city.

“Check,” said Leo. “We’ll be right behind you.”

 

The gull mutant lit on the top of the towering concrete shell of a high-rise. Most of the windows in the lower half were busted out. It looked like it might fall down at the slightest breeze.

A few moments later, Cav appeared at one of the highest of the broken-out windows, waving the turtles in as they used grappling hooks to zigzag their way up the building. Rock and Casey stood to the side of the room, waiting for the turtles to arrive.

The inside of the building seemed to be in about as good of shape as the outside; paint and wallpaper peeling off the walls, heaps of paper nearly obscured by black mold, rusted metal equipment that pointed to the building’s former medical nature. “Classy place,” Raph commented sarcastically.

Cav raised his whiskers at him, exposing the fang on that side of his face. “It’s not much, but we get along. Come on… Kafka’s been dying to meet you.” He led the group to a stairwell.

“Ah yes, the much-touted Kafka…” Leo said wryly.

“He’s… not the most useful guy… as a mutant or otherwise, but he’s a hoot. And useful or not, we mutants have to stick together. We were lucky enough to run into you… who knows how many other mutants there are out there, in hiding? But if we could get everyone in one pl—“   A fluffy, ringed tail fell down in front of his eyes. “Goddammit, Frito! Get down!”

Frito descended the wall he had been climbing in the stairwell and dropped onto the steps. He grinned at the turtles and fell in step with Raph.

Cav’s ears flattened a bit. “Kid hasn’t stopped climbing the walls since we got back last night. He’s gonna have _me_ climbing the walls before too long if he doesn’t quit it… He keeps going for the elevator shaft. Even I’m not okay with that.”

“Has he figured out ceiling-walking yet?” Raph asked.

“What?!”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll show him how when we’re done here. Sound good, Jamal?” the turtle said, winking to his young protégé. Frito nodded enthusiastically.

Cav glanced back at him and shook his head with a groan. He reached the next floor—third from the top of the building—and exited the stairwell, the others following him out. “Kafka, visitors…”

A large black bulk shifted slightly in the dark. “Ah, yes… well,” came an echoey voice with a very slight British accent to it.. “Perhaps they can wait a moment while I finish my sentence here…”

“He writes in the dark?” Leo asked Cav.

“He writes all the time… light or not, though he can actually see better in the dark.”

“Apologies, I suppose a bit of enlightenment is in order,” Kafka’s voice echoed at them again. The light of an electric lantern flared. “Is that better?” The lantern lit dozens of piles of books and stacks of paper, and a very large black beetle.

Raph screamed, backing into Mikey and drawing his sai. Mike caught him and held him back from attacking. “Raph, easy! Chill! It’s not a cockroach!”

The beetle’s antennae waved slightly as it stared at them. “Can’t say as I blame you… Not only do I see better in the dark, I look better in it.”

“You’ll have to excuse him, he has a roach phobia. I’m—“

“Leonardo, in the blue mask; Michelangelo, in the orange; Donatello in the purple; Raphael, the red; and April, no mask, but red hair; and one human, Something-Jones. I’m afraid I can’t read my own handwriting here…”

“That’d be the one and only Casey Jones, thank you…” Casey corrected.

“Ah, yes… the Mighty Casey.” Kafka picked up his pen and made a correction on a sheet of paper on his desk, which was really a wooden door balanced atop several stacks of books. Thick sheaves of paper lay in piles on top of the door, as well as a tin can full of writing implements, and a photograph in a frame. Casey’s name documented, the beetle turned his attention back to them. “Macavity has told me much about the lot of you. How very interesting, that there should be so many mutant turtles in New York, and practicing ninjitsu, of all things!” He glanced back at his page of notes. “But one of these is not like the others… The first four, all names from the Renaissance, artists… but ‘April’? Definitely a discrepancy there…”

“I’ve only been a turtle for a month,” she explained.

“Ah, another victim of the recent mutagen rain, perhaps, like Jamal?” He continued writing as they spoke.

“Well… no… There was… kind of an accident while we were fighting the Kraang—“

“The what?” The beetle lifted his pen.

“The aliens that brought the mutagen to this dimension in order to transform the planet into one like their own,” Donnie summarized.

Kafka stared, pincers agape. “You’re having me on.  Pull one of my other legs, they’ve got bells on…”

“If only!” Mikey put in.   “Those guys are a pain in our shells like, weekly! Them and Shredder…”

Leo took over where Mikey left off. “So far, we’ve managed to stop them from taking over, but they’re definitely leaving a path of destruction in their wake, in the form of mutants and wrecked lives… And, they’re apparently allied with a very powerful enemy of ours, who wants us and our master dead.”

“Damn,” Cav exclaimed, “Foes in high places… I hope I’m not making a mistake bringing you guys into the fold…”

“’The fold?’ What are we, sheep?” Raph scoffed.

Kafka shifted toward him. “You are joining us, are you not?”

“Whoa, what? Hold on…” Leonardo said, taken aback.

The beetle shook his head. “Oh, Cav… you just assumed—“

Cav snapped back at him, “I got them here, didn’t I?!”

“…to your lovely palace, the home of the illustrious Mutant Alliance?” Kafka mocked, a sneer evident in his voice. “Yes, some impressive army we are; an _ungeheures Ungeziefer_ who has trouble moving from room to room, a nine-year old boy, a seagull who’s all but mute, and an old cat lady.”

“An army?!” Leo started, the others showing like expressions of shock and distaste.

The tomcat turned to face him. “Don’t listen to him, he’s just crabby! We’re not much yet, but the ball is just starting to roll… The mutants in this city need somewhere to go, somewhere where they’ll be treated with respect… a place where they can help one another! That’s us… that’s here! The four of us and Nora, we’re just the start. There’s bound to be other mutants hiding in this city… you turtles and the encounters you mentioned last night are proof of that. Getting them all in one place… that’s the hard part, especially when we’re all in hiding.”

“Yeah, getting a bunch of questionably sane mutants together in one place… What could possibly go wrong there?” Raph snarked.

“It _is_ putting a lot of crazy in one basket,” Donnie added. “The mutation process seems to addle people’s brains a little. Or a lot.”

“And yet, there’s mutants like all of us, who are perfectly sane,” Cav argued.

Kafka interjected, “Sanity is a relative term…” and moved across the room to a large stack of his apparently archived work, and pulled loose a particular sheaf of paper. He handed a stack of pages to Leo and Cav. Every sheet was covered in wild chicken-scratch handwriting, written at crazy angles, expressing disturbing sentiments such as “Kill them all kill them all kill them all” and “Revenge! They will all bleed for doing this to me!” One insisted “Publish or perish!” several dozen times.

“This is how I expressed myself until the madness passed, when I first metamorphosed from Paul Allen Richting, professor of literature, to Kafka, the man-sized hulk of a black beetle.” He retrieved the pages from them and shuffled back across the room to the stack of paper he had pulled them from, using all four of his arms to put them in order and place them back in the pile at the correct place. “It took months to channel the insanity out of my system, but it did eventually come under my control.”

“And he’s been sane for years since then,” Cav said triumphantly. “I just kept bringing him food and paper. All they need is time, maybe guidance... and they’ll come out of it.”

“Possibly…” Donatello mulled. He glanced sideways at April for a moment. Hope arose in him; her nymphomania could be temporary! Like Kafka, she could work it out of her system!

Leo took over his thought. “Or possibly not. Cathartic writing may have worked for Kafka, but for every mutant? Some of them probably couldn’t be bothered… especially the ones who don’t think there’s anything wrong with them…”

“Not to mention all the ones we know that are sane enough and just flat-out evil,” Raph added.

Cav thought, chin in one paw. “Hmmm, so it seems we need a no-fly list of sorts. Kafka, ready to take dictation?”

“Of course.” The beetle reached for a clean sheet of paper with and another pen with his lower set of arms while continuing to write with his upper right pincer.

“Who do we start with?” Raph said, getting down to business.                   

“Shredder’s hench-mutants. Rahzar, a.k.a. Chris Bradford. Zombie-wolf… thing. He was double-mutated. Then FishFace… “

 

While watching from the back of the huddle as Leo, Raph and Mikey generated lists of every mutant the group knew of, friend or foe, Donnie felt an insistent tap on his shell. He looked down to see the little raccoon mutant beckoning him toward the stairs. “What’s up, Frito?” he asked softly as he followed. April, also curious as to where he was going, came along.

Frito said nothing, but led them up two more stories, to what looked like a living and bedding area for the three mutants; Kafka, it appeared, did not require a bed, either not sleeping at all or sleeping where he was at his desk. The beds appeared to be comprised largely of crumpled newspaper and gull feathers, but were layered with quilts, clearly Nora’s contribution. The raccoon headed for the smallest nest-like bed, in a corner away from the windows. He threw the quilts off and began digging through the rustling mishmash of bedding. After a moment, he pulled a container of mutagen out of the hole, ducked back into it and produced another, then a third. He kicked some of the bedding back into place as he hopped off the bed, holding one of the large cylinders out to Donatello.

“You should have these,” he said. “I don’t think Cav would like me giving them to you, but you can use them to make that retro-medicine, right?”

Donnie nodded, accepting the first two capsules, April taking the third. “Frito, where did you get these?”

“Found them while we were out looking for stuff,” he said nonchalantly. “They’re dangerous… I don’t want what happened to me happening to other people, ‘specially other kids.

“What happened to you when you got mutated?” April asked, sitting on the scrunching edge of what, judging by the sheer size, must have been Rock’s bed. Donnie sat down next to her as Frito flopped onto his own pile.

“My mom sent me to take out the trash. Animals get into it a lot… She told me to make sure the lids were on super-tight, so I was packing them down and saw this clump of hair stuck to one of them. It didn’t look like cat hair… too stiff, like one of these…” He whisked his tail around and pulled one of the brownish-gray hairs loose from it to show the two turtles. “Then one of these fell out of the sky onto the stoop and sprayed all over me when it broke,” he said, pointing to the mutagen. “It hurt a lot, and I screamed, and my mom heard me and she came outside and started screaming too, because she got scared of me, I guess. She was screaming so much, she didn’t listen when I said it was me… she ran back in the house and called the animal cops on me. I ran across the street and hid in the bushes until they went away. And then I ran away, so I wouldn’t scare my family any more.” He paused, ending his story. “You wanna see a picture of me as a human?” he asked brightly.

“Sure,” April said with a warm smile. Frito turned over on his stomach and dug under the side of his bed, tugging out a flat sheet of paper and handing it to her. She held it so that Donnie could see it as well. _MISSING CHILD ALERT_ , it read across the top. Beneath the headline was a picture of a bald-shaved dark-skinned boy smiling for a school picture. _Jamal Evan Everett, age 9, Missing since October 8, 2013._ Don and April exchanged a concerned look. April handed the flyer back to Frito. “You’re a cute kid, Jamal.”

Donnie nodded in agreement. “We’ll try to get you back to normal as soon as possible. We need to pick up more mutagen in order to make it, but then we might have enough in the batch for all of you.”

Frito bobbed his head, wearing a solemn expression. “I miss my mom and dad, and my big brother. I miss my mom’s cooking, even the carrots. And I miss going to school. Even the homework. I hate carrots, and I hate homework, but I’d eat a billion carrots and do homework forever if I could just go home again.”

A melancholic pause filled the air for a moment, then April opened her arms toward the raccoon mutant. “Come here…” Frito took two steps and then fell into April’s arms with a sniffle. “It’ll be all right… we’re going to fix you.”

“As soon as we can. I promise. As soon as April’s cure is done, you’re top priority,” Donnie affirmed.

Jamal looked up from April’s arms, the fur around his eyes wet. “What’s that mean?”

“It means you’re next in line, and really important. Keep looking for mutagen capsules… the ones we’ve found have all been in this area…” He showed Frito the map of the mutagen distribution on his T-phone. “If they’re broken, don’t touch them, but remember where they are, so I can come clean them up, okay? I’ll come by every couple weeks to see if you’ve found anything.”

Frito nodded.

“And we should probably not mention this to Cav or the others until later,” April added.

“Why’s that?” Donnie asked.

“Cav… I’ve got a weird vibe from him. He passed the mutant army thing off as a joke, but I think he may be serious about it. If he knows we’re making something that’ll turn all his soldiers human again, he might take them all and bolt, and then we’ll never get Frito back to normal, Rock and Kafka aside.”

“Good point. Super-secret project, right, Jamal?”

Jamal crossed his heart, then made the motion of locking it and swallowing the key.

Donnie motioned to the stairwell, and the three of them descended to join the rest of the group.

Cav, Kafka, and the other three turtles were going over their lists again, appending a critical detail here and there. Casey was hanging out with Rock by the window. Rock was tapping a cadence against the glass with his beak, and Casey was doing his best to repeat it.

“This guy’s got some sweet beats, you guys! Check it out… Take it away, Rock!”

Rock tilted his head as if slightly annoyed, but complied and tapped on the glass. Tik-tik-tik, tak tak tak, tik-tik-tik.

Cav seemed nonplussed. “He does that from time to time, no idea why.”

“Not bad, right? That’s the simple bit… You should see him when he really gets going.” Rock repeated the same sequence again. Something clicked in Donnie’s head, and it wasn’t the tapping on the glass.

“That’s not just beats at random… that’s Morse Code for SOS!”

Rock let out a raucous gull scream, flaring his giant wings open. “RAWK! RAWK! RAWK!”

“Don’t you knock my manuscripts over, you great winged rat!” Kafka warned. “You do, you’re putting them all back in order!” Rock ducked his head meekly and pulled his winged hands back to his sides. “I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection myself, not that it would have done me any good, not knowing anything more than SOS myself…” Kafka mourned. He pulled out a fresh sheet of paper. “Ready to transcribe, Rock.”

The seagull began pecking at the glass once again, at speed, the beetle recording the beats as dots and dashes. Donatello did a quick search on his phone and began translating. “Capt Enrique Salvo, ferry boat, Angelica Lee. No family to contact. Victim mutagen rain. Pls no more catfood.”

“Oh… uh... I guess I’ve been a little heavy-handed with the seafood paté… Sorry, Rock. Er, Enrique.”

“Rock is fine,” the gull tapped out briefly. “Good to talk.”

Kafka copied out the code key from Donnie’s phone. “Thank you for that,” he said. “He’s been cut off from the world for months. I know he appreciates it.”

He did indeed; the big gull swept Donatello up into a crushing bear hug. Donnie was glad for his shell, as even that seemed to creak under the pressure Rock was putting on it. “You’re welcome…” he said, hoping to be released if he did.

Cav laughed, then was suddenly distracted by Frito’s tail falling in front of him as he walked across the ceiling, climbing claws clutched in his toes. “Jesus Christ, Frito, the ceiling?! Really?! Get down before you fall down!” Raph snickered at them triumphantly.

“Well, I imagine Rock would probably like to get caught up with you, so we’ll get out of your hair. Guys…” Leo signaled.

 

The group convened around the stairs, descending to the broken-out windows. Cav escorted them down.

“Perhaps one day, we’ll get to see your home, hm?” he suggested, swishing his tail.

Leo rolled his eyes at this slightly. “I’m afraid that’s really unlikely.”

“Why?” Cav pressed, expectant. “We showed you our base.”

“Well, for one thing, Master Splinter is a rat… he’s not thrilled at the idea of having a cat around, mutant or otherwise. And for another, ninjas don’t just give away their lair. It’s a threat to our security.”

“Ah,” Cav said, though he sounded downhearted about it, “I can understand that, I guess… It’s a pity; I’d rather you join up with us, of course…”

“Right,” Raphael sneered, “so we can join this supposed army of yours?”

“It’s not an army, I said!” the cat snapped back at him. “I want it to be a… support network for mutants. Until we amass a big enough group to make an impression on the humans that mutants have the same basic rights.” He whirled on April and Donnie suddenly, pointing a sharp claw at them. “And I can’t do that if you two plan on reverting all of my people. And I, for one, don’t want to go back to being an old alley cat.” They looked at each other, stunned. “Oh yes, I heard you upstairs. Ears like this hear a lot. I know what you’re doing with that mutagen… and I’ll tell you this: you come in here with any of that retro-mutagen, and you’re gonna have a fight on your hands,” he said, extending and splaying the claws on one hand and showing them prominently.

April glowered at him. “You’d keep them all mutants, even if they had a chance to go home? Even Jamal? He’s just a little kid! He needs to go back to his family!”

“And they’re _my_ family!  I need him, I need them all. He’s just as well off with me! I can care for him!”

“ _You_ just about let him fall to his death last night!” Raph reminded him sharply. “That’s not how you treat family.”

“That was just… tough love,” Cav tried to defend himself.

“…otherwise known as child neglect,” Casey added harshly. “You act like you care about Frito and Rock and Kafka, but you have your own personal motivations at hand, don’t you, Cav?”

“He’s scared,” April stated, sensing Cav’s feelings.

“Good! He should be!” said Raph, smacking a fist into his hand.

“No… he’s afraid of being alone,” April explained. “I think I understand… if we revert everyone except him, he’ll be the only one left.”

Cav wrinkled a lip at her. “How—“ he started, trailing off. “Nevermind, it’s not important. You wouldn’t revert me, then?”

“Dude, if we reverted you just because you were an animal to start with, we’d have to revert ourselves or we’d just be the biggest hypocrites,” Mikey assured him.

“We haven’t come across very many mutants that were animals to begin with,” Leo said, “but taking away their sentience just because this isn’t their natural state seems like… a violation of basic rights.”

“You’d still be taking everyone from me…”

“Cav,” said Donnie, sympathetically, “they’ve got to have the option to leave, or you’re just keeping them prisoner. If you’re truly a friend to them, they may stay, or go and come back, or help your cause, if you ask. But Frito’s still too young for all this. He shouldn’t have his childhood taken from him, especially if we can get him back to normal. It’ll still be months before I can make the retro-mutagen for him, even if I had enough mutagen now…”

Leo chipped in as well. “Come on, Cav… You’re right, we’re all mutants, we shouldn’t be working at cross-purposes. And your ideas for the Mutant Alliance aren’t bad… mutants need somewhere to go, they need guidance, food, a place to stay, and friends. You’ve managed that for you four, and you take care of Ms. Nora. If you can provide that without obligation for them to stay, we’ll back you. We’ll send you any relatively sane mutants we come across.”

“And you’ll keep your retro-mutagen away otherwise?” Cav asked cautiously, retracting his claws.

“We’ll save it for the most extreme circumstances,” Donnie vowed. “As it is, there’s getting to be so many mutants in the city, I’d have to raise a kraathatrogon just to produce the mutagen to make enough retro-mutagen for them all…”

“I’m telling you, Donnie… you’ll spare people a lot of confusion if you just call ‘em space worms…” Casey insisted.

The cat mutant held up a paw at him. “I’m just gonna put a mental block on all the alien shit for now… But it seems… we have an arrangement?”

Leonardo grasped the hand Cav offered. “The Turtles will back the Mutant Alliance.”

“The Mutant Alliance backs the Turtles. Any mutagen we find, it’s yours. Call on us if you need us, we’ll be there. But how do we contact you?”

“Well, we’ll be checking in on you in a couple of weeks,” Donnie reiterated, in case Cav hadn’t caught that part of their conversation with Frito. “With you guys being effectively off the grid, keeping a charge on a phone might be hard… I’ll have to come up with something for you.”

April snapped her fingers. “Nora has some long strips of fabric… There’s a storm drain on Pell Street, off Bowery, across from an old closed video rental place…”

“The pizza pick-up place?” Mikey interrupted.

April nodded. “The guys go past there several times a day. So if you tie a strip of fabric to the grate, we’re bound to see it. Red for an emergency, any other color otherwise.”

“Nice, April!” Leo said approvingly.

Cav’s brow furrowed. “But how can you see that, unless you’re down in… Oh. Man. And I thought this place was a dump…”

“Eh, it’s not so bad. You lose your sense of smell after a while,” Raph observed.

“And on that lovely note, we’ll be going. So long, Cav,” Leo announced, the turtles and Casey rappelling down the broken-down building.

 

As the group bounded over the rooftops and Casey turned off, heading for his apartment, April suddenly stopped, feeling watched. She concentrated for a moment to pinpoint the source. “Leo, Karai’s waiting for you,” she called. Leonardo stopped in his tracks on the next rooftop over, then reversed his course.

April pointed toward a billboard, then seemed to change her mind and pointed to a fire escape, then a water tower. “Well, in any case, she’s inbound. I’ll leave you to her.” She ran for the roof’s edge and leapt off, catching up with Donnie, who was waiting for her.

Leo swept one of his katanas from his back, blocking the strike from Karai’s falchion that he knew was coming without looking. He watched Don and April clasp hands as they jumped to the next building together.

“I hate it when sshhe tracksss me like thhhat… it’sss creepy,” Karai complained. “Come on, Leo… You’re not evvven trying to make thhisss fffun anymore…”

“Hm? Oh… sorry.” He attacked furiously with his katanas, though his mind was still elsewhere.

“Getting jealousss?” Karai asked, following his line of sight to the now tiny figures moving across the roofs, though it was more tender than her usual mocking tone of voice.

“Getting worried,” he replied, parrying her next swing. “Like the dam’s going to break soon.”

“Thhhunder befffore thhe sstorm…” she agreed, lowering her weapon. “You don’t thhhink your brothher can handle her muchh longer?”

Leo shook his head. “I don’t know... Sometimes I can’t tell who’s controlling who. All I can do is hope Donnie finishes her cure soon.” He sighed and turned his gaze to her. “And I was hoping he’d work on a retro-mutagen for you next, but I’m afraid you’ve been bumped down the list… there’s a little boy we need to get home first.”

She let out a low hiss. Leonardo couldn’t tell if it was a sigh of disappointment or annoyance, though it was possibly both. “You alwaysss thhhink withh your heart, Leo,” she said accusingly, but her voice was warm, and her tail began coiling around his legs.

“You know this is never going to work out…” he discouraged.

She nuzzled his beak. “I know… but I’ll take what I can get,” she said, wrapping him further in her coils. She flicked her forked tongue against the side of his head.

He winced, giggling. “C’mon, stop… that tickles!”

“Well, what’re you gonna do to ssstop me?”

Leo smirked at her but said nothing, pulling his hands loose of her grip. He set one against her back and slid the other up to the back of her head, drawing her in. She folded her viper-headed arms over his neck.

The meeting of her snout and his beak wasn’t ideal, but they managed to close around each other enough to make it work. That forked tongue slipped into his mouth, toying with his own as they sucked against each other.

Karai tightened herself around Leo’s legs. His eyes popped open as she pulled him off balance and they fell. He landed on his shell with a grunt, with her atop him. He knew very well she wasn’t going to apologize for that, so he didn’t wait for her to. He stroked her neck and shoulders. Her serpentine body writhed around him. He moved a hand down the length of her. She gasped as he traced her soft underbelly with his fingers.

“Found a sweet spot?” he asked wryly.

“Yeah,” she said breathlessly, then let out a soft moan as he began rubbing the area. She raked the fangs of one of her serpent-head hands down his shell, leaving tiny scratches behind, then moved them up to trace the inside of his carapace. Their fangs scratched lightly across the skin where his spine fused with his shell, and his breath caught in his throat. “Thhat’ssss new…” Karai observed as he gulped for air as the pleasure passed.

”What…” Leo breathed, ”… was that?”

“Doeszz it do thhat on thhe othhher ssside too?” she wondered, giving it an experimental prod. Leo shuddered at the ecstasy that coursed through him. His manhood poked insistently out from his shell, between Karai’s coils. She blinked at it for a moment, as did he, a bit abashed, then she gave him a shocked look. “I thhink I sssprung a trap…”

“Careful,” he said in response, smirking. “It might go off…” She choked off a laugh, though he could still feel her giggling against him.

“I sssuppossze it’sss up to me to defffuszze it thhen…” She moved her tail so that two lengths of it moved against his cock in opposite directions as she constricted him. Her scales were cool and smooth, nearly feeling liquid as they flowed against his bulging shaft like strings of pearls. She looped the tapering bit of her tail around his hardness again, adding another layer of pleasure for him.

He groaned and stroked her stomach plating again, causing her to gasp and constrict slightly. He winced. “Careful! Easy…”

“Uhh… whoopsss,” she hissed, semi-apologetically, uncoiling herself from him almost entirely. “Let me make it up to you…” She shifted to face his lower torso.

“Karai, you don’t have to—“ he started, but she plunged the head of his dick into her mouth, careful not to graze him with her fangs. “—Oh, god…” he moaned, protest giving way to pleasure as she flicked her tongue against the tip of his hard monstrosity. It tickled in a way that made his eyes roll back in his head. Then she added her snakelike hands, twisting them around him and working them up and down his shaft as she sucked on him. She moved them off-time from each other, pleasuring him three ways at once. He strained, nearly ready to release his load into her, and then—

“Ssssee you later, Leo…” She pulled away from him, smiling roguishly.

He looked up, befuddled. “Wha—Karai?!” he complained, unsatisfied. A flash of smoke, and she was gone. He was used to her being cruel, but now? Now?! He sat up, grumbling, and resumed stroking himself where she’d left off, fantasizing about pinning the bitch down and making her finish the job, until he brought himself off. He spurted his load across the roof of the building with a relieved sigh, waited for his penis to retract, and left for home.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cav does have an agenda, but his vision tends to exceed his means.
> 
> I'm a bit worried that I built up Kafka too much for his actual meager few lines... though I am quite proud of the see better/look better wordplay. I'm hoping to work in more for him in the next story; Kafka and Frito are a joy to write.


	13. Burnout

Chapter 13 - Burnout

 

Donnie laid out his bedding beside April’s, settling down next to her. _This feels so unreal..._ he projected to her. _…And kind of weird._

 _Weird, how?_ she asked.

He stretched out on his back. _Like… we’ve reached another level, you know, sleeping together. But like we skipped ahead… there should have been a ceremony, or I should have carried you across a threshold or something…_

She gave him a sedate grin. _You could carry me over the threshold now, if you wanted to._

 _But there wouldn’t be a point to it unless we were actually… married._ And that was something he knew was never going to happen, realistically. Her imminent return to humanity dawned on him again, paining him. She picked up on the feeling and reached over to stroke his cheek. _Do you ever think about your wedding? How you’d want it to be?_ he asked, searching for a distraction.

 _I always wanted an outdoor wedding…_ she thought. _…with a big arch of pink and white flowers, somewhere near the water. And an outdoor h’ors d’oeurvres buffet. And a huge cake… white, with pink icing and those little silver ball things. And my dress… I’d want one of those sleeveless ones, with a big, puffy bottom half, and a long train, and a flowered headband with a veil attached…_ She paused, the illusory picture in her mind dissolving. _Of course, that’s changed a bit, since I‘d want you guys and Master Splinter to be there too now…_

Donnie expected to be in the audience for this new vision of hers, with the same flowered arch placed in the lair, on the middle tier of steps, but she had him placed next to the arch, dressed in a tuxedo, waiting for her father to walk her down the aisle to him. Then her thoughts about the wedding night and the pleasures of consummating it with him began to intrude.

He balked a little at the thought. Him? As the groom? Surely not… He wouldn’t allow her to be trapped like that. Though it killed a part of him, he altered the vision, putting a cleaned-up Casey Jones in his place. Then he put everything back in its outdoor setting. That was how it was supposed to be.

April gave him a confused, saddened look. _Why?_ her mind asked.

_You have to go back. You don’t have a future down here… you know that._

She rolled so her back was to him. _I know that,_ she repeated hollowly and pulled away from his mind. After a moment, while he lay confused and wondering what he should do, or could do to comfort her, she turned back over and kissed his beak, clasping hands with him. “G’night, Donnie,” she said warmly, closing her eyes.

A weak grin came to his face, though he let out a discontented sigh. “G’night, Sweetie.”

 

The next couple of days were fairly routine for Donnie: a haze of processing mutagen, sex with April, training, patrol, a little work on the Shellraiser, and more sex with April. Two nights of patrolling the same area, searching for an elusive canister of mutagen had yielded nothing, frustratingly.

Casey showed up mid-morning on Saturday with his wood-burning tool, as promised. He drew in the intended additions to the burn on Donatello’s shell with pencil, which April approved. Casey plugged the tool in and touched it to Donnie’s shell, tracing the outline he had drawn in. Before he had finished the first crescent, he drew back, coughing. “Whoa, man…”

“Ugh… smells like burning hair, but a million times worse!” April added, also choking on the acrid smoke.

“Hang on…” Donnie ducked into his lab and reemerged with some dampened rags for them to put over their faces. “This should keep some of the smoke out, at least.”

This solution seemed to work, though the other occupants of the lair weren’t pleased with the acrid stench of burning shell, and the three of them were chased into the garage and shut in. When that was determined not to work well enough to contain the reek, they relocated to the next platform down, sitting between the disused Van de Graaff towers. This at least seemed to provide enough room for the smell to dissipate.

With about two-thirds of the design finished, April stood up, collecting the rags to go give them another soaking. “Don’t do anything until I get back!” she warned.

“We won’t,” Casey promised, watching her until she was out of sight, then turned to Donnie. “Did it ever occur to you that under that shell, she’s completely naked?”

Donnie rolled his eyes. “She’s completely naked _with_ the shell, idiot! We all are! It’s not like they come off! And we’re not exactly built for wearing clothes…”

Casey stuck his tongue out in disgust. “Way to ruin it, man. Ugh. Now I don’t even want to look in your general direction anymore!”   To distract himself, he drew his hockey stick and started flipping a puck around on it. He shot it at one of the Van de Graaff domes, making it ring with a resounding BONG and leaving a deep dent in the metal. Donnie winced, even though the machine was pretty much useless now.

“Do you _ever_ respect other people’s stuff?” he snarled.

The hockey player smirked at him. “Most of it’s not worth respecting.” He recovered his puck, aiming at shot at the other dome. It ricocheted with a CLANG, hit the wall and flew back, smacking against Donnie’s shell.

Donnie whirled around from where he was sitting on the platform. “Did you just hit me with a puck?!” he demanded, glaring.

“No,” Casey said, feigning innocence, then broke out in an impish smile. “Yes.” He smacked another puck caroming around the platform. Donnie reached up and plucked it out of the air as it flew at him from behind. “Shit, D! Skills!”

”Ninja,” Donnie reminded him simply.

“You’d make an awesome goalie, I bet,” he said, pulling the goalie stick from his back, tossing it to the turtle. “C’mon, try it out.”

Donnie caught the broad stick… paddle, was more like it. Or shield… He tried spinning it. Naturally, it had no balance, not made to be spun. _To a ninja, anything can be a weapon,_ he remembered Splinter teaching them. A couple calculations later, and he managed to find its center of gravity. He gave it a quick flip to test it out, then gave his rival a malicious grin.

Casey pitched Donnie his skull-styled mask. “Put that on… Wouldn’t want to accidentally improve your looks,” he teased. “Not everybody can pull this look off as well as Casey Jones.”

Donnie strapped it on, and spent a couple minutes trying to figure out how to get it on over his beak and still be able to see through the eye holes, but he made it work in the end. “Close enough, I guess.” He dropped down onto the subway tracks, facing Casey.

“I’ll go easy on you,” Casey promised.

“Don’t do me any favors,” Don commented back snidely.

Casey shot a puck directly for him, and Donnie deflected it easily. Jones shot three more in rapid succession. Donnie whirled the goal stick, blocking each of the pucks in turn. Casey dumped several more pucks out of his bag.

“Okay, Donnie… The difficulty level just went up!”

“Bring it!” Donnie called back triumphantly.

Jones blasted several shots at the turtle, each blocked by the rapidly-spinning goal stick, a number of them sailing back in Casey’s direction, so that he had to dodge.

“Ack! Cease fire! Cease fire!” April called, defending herself with the damp rags, holding them up in front of her as pucks flew past.

“Oop… Sorry, April!” Donnie said, tipping the mask up off his face. He returned the stick and mask to Casey, helping pick up all the deflected pucks.

“Welcome back, Red… D, that was wicked! I wish we could get you on the team… we’d be unstoppable! Granted, some of that might be considered high-sticking, but… no big.” The two of them fist-bumped.

“C’mon, guys… let’s finish this up. Mikey’s ‘saving’ us some pizza, so you know it’s not actually going to last very long.”

“Right,” Donnie agreed, resuming his place on the platform, catching the rag April tossed to him and draping it over his beak. Then, connecting to her again, he watched Casey work through her eyes. “It’s looking good… I’m impressed, Jones.”

“Yeah… it’s a pity more people don’t have shells… I could start a burning parlor or something.”

“Well, you’ve got a potential customer in Mikey…”

April scoffed. “You think you could get Mikey to sit still long enough to get this done?”

Donnie thought for a second. “Give him a stack of comic books and tell him he has chores to do, and he’ll be motionless for hours.”

They all had a laugh at this, and then Casey called for silence. “Okay, shut up, no laughing… I gotta concentrate on this part or I’m gonna screw it up.” …which, of course, set off a vicious circle of contagious giggles among them, especially between the two synergists, who kept sharing amusing mental images with each other. Casey eventually got fed up with them setting each other off. “Would you guys cut it out?? Now I just feel like I’m missing out on the joke! And I’m not gonna be able to make a straight line if you keep moving!” he scolded Donatello.

“All right, all right, we’ll disconnect…” Donnie conceded, mentally stepping away from April’s mind.

It took Casey another hour to finish off all the edging and small details to his satisfaction. Donnie never would have pinned him for such a perfectionist. April applauded when he declared the design finished. “Oh, Casey, it’s perfect!”

“Let me see!” Don demanded, also excited to see the end result. April linked to him again and let him look through her sight. The image was crisp, and a perfect representation of the Hamato crest, with a little extra detail. “You added a shadow,” he noticed. “Looks good. Nice job.”

“I bet Master Splinter is gonna love it! I can’t wait to show him…” April gushed. “Are you coming back with us?”

Casey ruffled his hair, then coughed at the shower of foul ash that came out of it. “Ugh… maybe I’d better just go home and shower… I smell like a concentration camp! You guys probably just as much…”

April pulled a piece of her hair out of its ponytail and held it to her nose. “Blechh! We probably all need it… And my eyes are burning…”

Donnie raised his arm to his nose and sniffed. The smell made him gag. “Man… we reek…”

“So, I’ll see you guys, what, Monday, Tuesday, for patrol?” Casey checked, hopping down from the platform.

“Probably Monday… I’ll text you,” Donnie confirmed. “See ya, man, and thanks!”

“Later!” he called, walking down to the exit at the next platform as Donnie and April headed the opposite direction, back to the lair.

 _Seems like you two have gotten a lot closer,_ she commented.

Donnie shrugged. _I guess… We’ve been through a lot together, haven’t we?_ The fact that April being a turtle knocked Casey out of the running for her …erm, affections… certainly took the edge off their rivalry over her as well… But the shoe would be on the other foot soon enough, he knew. How jealous would he be when she was gone, he wondered? He wasn’t ready to let her go yet… but he’d have to. It was his responsibility to get her back to normal… back to her life. He wished with all his heart that she could stay… he would miss her—missed her already. _That doesn’t even make any sense… you’re still here, right here, and I miss you…_ He tried to shake the feeling off, but it didn’t seem to want to go.

She felt his sorrow and leaned in closer to him. _You act like you’ll never see me again… like I’m moving away._

He stared into her eyes. _Things won’t be the same once you go back_ , he said, trying to keep Casey out of his thoughts. _Especially after we’ve had all this._

She nodded in understanding. _We’re so far beyond ‘just friends’… we can’t go back to what we were._ Her heart ached in the same way his did. _Oh, I don’t want to think about this… think about something else..._ Her mind cast about for something else, and what it came up with was wondering about having a three-way with Don and Casey. Donnie was so revulsed, he almost fell out of synergy with her. _Sorry!_ she apologized, cramming the thought back into the depths from whence it came.

 _It’s fine…_ he thought, remembering their first intimately-shared thoughts they’d shared through their bond. _At least I’m not thinking about that silhouette of Casey—Crap, now I AM thinking about it…_ He winced. April had already picked up on it. He wanted to hide.

April mentally drew back from him. “Maybe we shouldn’t be in each other’s head-space right now…” she said, blushing.

“Yyyeah,” he agreed, also feeling his cheeks redden.

 

They walked the rest of the way back in embarrassed silence, but were holding hands again by the time they reached the turnstiles.

April draped one of the wet rags over Donnie’s finished brand. “I don’t want anyone to see it until we get cleaned up properly,” she told him, ushering him to the shower at the back of the lair.

“Don’t you want to go first?” he protested.

“No, you go ahead,” she insisted, shoving him into the little stall. “I’ve gotta get my stuff together.”

He shrugged at her flightiness and removed his mask, belt and pads, draping them over the open top of the curtained stall. He yanked the chain that started the water, which flowed out of their soup-can showerhead. He stood enjoying the warmth for a couple of minutes, letting the ash and stink rinse away. He closed his eyes and stuck his face in the flow. There was always something familiar and comforting about being in the water.

With a relaxed sigh, he soaped himself down and reached for the back-brush… which was a plain scrub brush roped to a piece of broomstick. He startled as it was taken out of his hand. “April?!” he squawked, realizing she was in the stall with him.

“Shhh!” she giggled. “I decided not to wait my turn after all.” A light fragrance of musk and herbs perfumed the steamy air, and she began using the brush on his shell. “This should get rid of the smell… Sorry, it’s the least girly-smelling shampoo I’ve got…”

Still in shock, he whispered, “April, what are you doing in here?!”

“Making sure you get all of that burnt-shell smell off… every bit of it. It’s hideous,” she said, quietly enough to be covered by the sound of the water. “Then you can help wash it off of me.”

There was something about the intrusion on his privacy that made his cheeks redden again, but he stopped, wondering, why? Like he’d said to Casey, it wasn’t like they could get much more naked… Still, there would probably be hell to pay if Splinter found out, or at least endless ribbing from his brothers.

He relaxed into the wonderful feeling of April’s scrubbing as she finished his carapace and moved to more sensate areas. She had him kneel down so that she could reach his shoulders properly.

“Oh…” she said softly, “these need to come off now too…” She carefully peeled the tape from the wounds on his head. She tsked. “Damn, I was hoping they wouldn’t scar… It’s not bad, but you’ll probably always have the marks…” She caught his eye and linked with him again to show him the top and back of his head. Two light green stripes, a hand’s width apart, ran across his skull. He was probably lucky… Had Shredder not been intent on wanting to torment them, he could easily have taken Donnie’s eye with a point of his daggers. But the scars themselves didn’t bother him in the least, and when he wasn’t looking at them through April, he couldn’t even really see them.

April distracted him from this train of thought by reaching down into his shell with her bath pouf, carefully rubbing the tender areas there with it, then massaging them lightly with her fingers. He let out a soundless moan, his cock freeing itself from its enclosure as she stroked him. “Oh, you wicked, evil thing…” he whispered at her.

She grinned seductively and pulled him up to his feet, then began to make sure that even this part of him got clean. The scratchiness of the pouf along his shaft drove him insane. He bit his lip to keep from screaming out.

She sent him the mental image of what she wanted. He complied and picked her up, sliding into her as she locked her legs around his shell. Resting her against the wall, he pumped into her warm, slick insides time and again as the water streamed over them. Her hair, loose from its usual ponytail, clung to her neck in an alluring way he’d never seen before. She flipped it out of her eyes, sending droplets flying. She reached her hand over her head, using it to steady herself against the wall as she clenched her eyes shut against the welling pleasure they felt from each other. Throwing her head back, she climaxed, mouth open in a silent shriek. He bent forward, nibbling her collarbones and the top of her plastron as he prepared to release his seed into her.

 _How lucky am I,_ he thought, _to be fucking the hottest turtle of all times?!_

If that thought alone wasn’t enough to set him off, it was her mental moan of, _Ohh, Donnie! You’re a god!_ as she came again along with him.

Weak-legged, he set her back on her feet, letting her shell slide down the back of the shower stall. She leaned into him, kissing his beak delicately. “Your turn,” she whispered with a seductive wiggle of her eyebrows. “All the dirty turtles need to be clean.”

She handed him the brush and a different bottle of shampoo to use on her. The front of it read, “For Dazzling Shine.” He wondered if that worked for shells as well as hair. Squirting a small amount onto the brush, he began working up a lather on the breast-like protrusions of her scutes. He was hypnotized by the way the bubbles flowed over the curves, dripping from the perky tips or flowing toward her petite cleavage. A fruity, floral aroma floated up on the steamy air. It wasn’t unpleasant, but he was glad that April had had the foresight not to use something so froofy-smelling on him.

He finished with her plastron and started on her carapace. She bent forward so he could reach the bottom side more easily. To her great amusement, he seized her by the sides of her shell and twerked her a few times. She had to muffle herself from screaming out with laughter. Then he started scrubbing her emerald skin with the pouf, working it in circles along her limbs.

He was providing her some extra pleasure, and possibly producing the most sparklingly clean cloaca in the world, when they were interrupted. “Yo, Donnie… hurry it up, wouldja?”

They both froze, blushing. “Erm… be out in a minute, Raph!” Don called back. He shut the water off. _We’re screwed…_ he thought.

 _Just go,_ April told him, giving him a shove toward the curtain, _Like it’s no big thing. Act natural._

He stepped out and snagged a towel. Raph was there, waiting, tapping his foot. “Finally!” he huffed, heading directly for the little enclosure. Donnie could only wait with bated breath as Raph went to pull the curtain back.

April exploded out of the shower, nearly colliding with Raphael as she streaked past him (literally and figuratively) with an ”Oop! Pardon me!” aimed at him as she bounded out and joined Donnie. Together, they raced into his room, laughing hysterically.

Raphael stood statue-still in the shower entrance for a moment, wondering what the hell had just happened, then gave an annoyed sigh and shook his head, going on about his business.

 

April gathered the turtles and Master Splinter together at the base of the steps. “Gentlemen, I present to you: Donatello’s new look!” She threw a smoke bomb to the floor, stepping aside. Donatello emerged as the smoke dissipated, his back to them to display his brand with its new, crisp definition. Leo, Mikey and Splinter clapped appreciatively. Raph slouched with his arms crossed, but gave an approving smirk.

“Are those scars going to be permanent?” Leo asked.

Mikey, who hadn’t noticed them yet, looked stunned, but enthusiastic as ever. “That is so metal…”

“I’m hoping they’ll fade in time,” April replied, “but I don’t think they’ll ever fully go away…”

Splinter stepped forward to examine the branding’s detail. “What do you think, Sensei?” Donnie asked.

“It is… very fine work,” Splinter said, choosing his words deliberately. “I am honored to have one of my sons wearing the crest of our family. Yet, I fear that it makes you a further target for Oroku Saki…”

“Sensei, he already went after Donnie because he thought the burn mark was the Hamato no kamon,” Leo defended.

“This is true,” the rat mulled, stroking his thin beard. “Shredder is not likely to reassess his initial mistake now that his mind is set. Nor is he likely to relent in his pursuit of you in specific,” he told Donnie, turning him around to speak face to face. “You must be on your guard, always, Hamato Donatello.”

Splinter had never addressed him so. Donatello straightened with pride to bear the family name. “Hai, Sensei… Otoo-san.” He bowed deeply, and Splinter returned the bow. Leonardo and Michelangelo also acknowledged their brother’s honor by bowing.

Splinter shifted his gaze to Raph. “Raphael, have you nothing to say to your brother?”

Raph smirked. “Yeah. I don’t think he’s particularly dazzling _or_ shiny,” he quipped, tossing April’s bottle of shampoo to Donnie.

Don gave him a smug grin in return. “That’s because _this_ is the dazzling, shiny turtle,” he said, pulling April to him by her carapace. “Isn’t she pretty?” She giggled at him as he kissed her neck. “And she smells like apples. Whereas I’m supposed to smell like… what was that, mint and…?”

“Rosemary,” April finished for him.

“Mint and rosemary,” Don reiterated. “You should try it sometime, it’s really quite refreshing.” Raph rolled his eyes and dismissed them with a “Bah,” and a flap of both hands at them as he returned to the lair’s arcade game. The others also disbanded, leaving April and Donnie to themselves.

“I got the curtains done,” April said conversationally.

“Oh yeah?” Donnie acknowledged.

She nodded. “I was gonna go out to the subway car and put them up. Want to come help me? And then we could…”

“Oh, come on… I just did you, and we just got cleaned up!”

“Please, Donnie?”

“No, Sweetie…” he told her. “I have to work on your retro-mutagen…”

She pouted at him. “But then it’ll be just me and the drill… and all that screwing…”

“I have to get this done,” he said firmly, setting his jaw.   “I’m sure you can screw yourse—I mean, you can manage on your own, right?”

She sighed. “Fine… but if you change your mind, or get done early, and want to come help me, you know where I’ll be…”

He shook his head. “It’s probably going to take me the rest of the afternoon to get this done… don’t hold your breath.”

“All right, then… I guess I’m on my lonesome…” She retrieved her box of supplies from the TV bench and wandered back past him, swishing her shell exaggeratedly as she walked. “Have fun with your mutagen.”

It was tempting to go after her, especially with that tantalizing little motion of her rear, but he reined himself in… aside of watching her disappear past the gates. Shaking himself free of her spell, he headed to his lab.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” he hollered, seeing the centrifuge’s power switch in the off position again. He stuck his head out of the lab. “MIKEY!”

“What?” Michelangelo peeked out of the kitchen.

“Quit messing with my equipment!”

“I didn’t do anything!” Mike hollered back.

“I know it was you, Mikey; there’s pizza crust and grease all over the place in here!” Okay, there was just a little bit of grease and a bite of crust next to the centrifuge, but as long as he was working himself into a boiling rage, the actual details were trivial.

“I wasn’t even in there the whole day, Donnie!” Michelangelo looked pleadingly to his brothers, who were now staring wide-eyed at him. “I’ve been framed!”

Donatello stormed out of his lab. “Which one of you screw-offs keeps messing with my stuff?!”

Leo looked curiously to Raph, who gave a shocked hands-up shrug. Leo approached Donnie calmly and quietly. “Donnie, don’t you think you’re leaving someone out of the lineup?”

Donnie thought for a moment. “Who, Casey? He was with us the whole time down in the tunnels…”

“Come on, Donnie, don’t be dense…”

Raph came up behind Leo. “I think he doesn’t want to consider her ‘cause it would be too inconvenient for him,” he assessed.

The word ‘her’ caught his attention. His jaw dropped. “ _April?!_ You’re accusing _AprilI?!_ But… that’s preposterous… What reason would she have? This is _her_ cure!”

Leo aimed a look at him. “You’d better ask _her_ that, then.”

Donatello looked back and forth at his brothers’ faces, hoping to find some hint of doubt, some string of logic they had all missed, some trace of guilt in one of their faces. But there was nothing.

Raph snapped his fingers, pointing. “She was in here earlier, while you guys were off burning your shell. Mikey, she got some pizza from you didn’t she?”

Mikey nodded. “Yeah. Oh my gosh, do you know what this means?!” he said excitedly.

Raph and Leo exchanged a look. “What?” Leo said, wondering if he actually wanted to hear the answer or not.

“There’s still two pieces of peanut-butter and pickled herring pizza left in the fridge! Dibs!” He dashed off as his brothers groaned.

Leonardo looked back to Donnie. “Please tell me you’re not going to be in denial about this too…”

Donnie steeled himself. “No. I’ll confront her about it. But I want to catch her in the act, to make absolutely sure it’s her.”

 

Night fell. The two of them curled up against each other in their habitual way. Donnie closed his eyes, but focused himself on not sleeping. Hours later, holding himself in a meditative state, he felt April move. She rose and exited the room. As she left, his eyes popped open, shining white in the darkness.

 

April tiptoed into the lab, peeking around cautiously to make sure none of the others were about, and switched off the centrifuge.

“Do you want to tell me why you keep sabotaging your own cure?” a firm voice behind her said. She jumped and let out a startled shriek, which she muffled with both hands. For once, her power of detection had failed her… perhaps because she hadn’t aimed it at the ceiling.

Whirling on him, she whispered angrily, “Donnie! What’re you doing?! You scared the crap out of me! You’re supposed to be in bed!” Her tone switched from startled to seductive. “But, you know, if you want to help me get back to sl—”

He scowled at her. “Don’t try to change the subject… April, what are you doing? You know I’ll never be able to make your retro-mutagen if I don’t process enough of this…”

She bit her lip, turning her head away from him as she spoke. “Buying myself some time.”

“What? Why?”

She steeled herself, trying to keep her voice low, though she stamped a foot on the floor.. “Because I don’t want to go!” Donnie blinked at her, jaw working as if he couldn’t find the right question to ask, so she continued. “I want to stay here, with you! But nobody is going to let me… not Splinter, not Dad… not you…” Her eyes started brimming over with tears. “Everybody expects that I want to go back and lead my normal life again, but _I don’t want that anymore!_ And nobody is going to listen, because, ‘oh, she’s just sixteen, she can’t know what’s good for her; she can’t know what she wants out of life yet!’ But I do! Why does everybody else get a say in what happens to me, and my vote gets overruled? Why do _they_ think they know what’s best for _me?!_ I’ve met my soul-mate—my literal soul-mate—and they won’t let us be together. Even you are planning to send me away. _”_

Donnie was floored. “Oh, Sweetheart… “ He gathered her up in his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you say something?!” He rocked back and forth with her in an almost dance-like motion. “And this is why you’re avoiding synergy with me?”

She nodded guiltily. “I’ve always been a ‘good girl,’ worked hard, gotten good grades, did what I was supposed to… and now I’m expected to be a ‘good girl’ and go along with this… Goddammit, I don’t want to be a good girl anymore! All it means is that I lose out on my own life!”

“We all just want what’s best for you… you know that. But maybe we’ve been overlooking what _you_ think is best for you.” He nuzzled her neck lovingly. “I’m sorry. I thought it was what you wanted… the only reason I let you go in the first place is because I didn’t want you to be trapped down here, and the same applies to turning you back human. I want you to be free!”

“Free… though apparently not free to make my own choices!” she scoffed.

“All you had to do was tell us… Your dad and Splinter, Casey, they’ll understand.” Donnie set his jaw. “They might not like it, but we’ll at least make them see your side of things. And ultimately, it’ll be your decision.” He turned her to face him. “I’m not going to turn you back unless you want me to. Let me finish making your retro-mutagen, so at least we have it, and we’ll lock it up in the fridge in the lab so only you and me have access to it, hm? _No one_ is going to change you back without your permission.”

She looked up into his eyes, tears of joy dancing in the corners of her own. She sought confirmation through their link, that he truly, honestly meant what he said. _Every word_ , he confirmed. _I promise._

He clung to the hope that she would work through her nymphomania, the way Kafka had burned through his insanity eventually. Of course she would… she could manage… couldn’t she? It wasn’t as if it was doing anyone harm…

“Oh, Donnie!” she cried, leaping up to kiss him. He spun her in a careful circle and set her down. She reached over to the centrifuge and turned it back on. Its motor resumed its low hum. She regarded it for a second. “Do you suppose the noise would cover….?”

He gave her an evil, desirous look. “Only one way to find out!” He grabbed her by the carapace and swung her to the floor, easing himself down on top of her. It was convenient having a girlfriend with handles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone surprised to find out who the culprit was? Didn't think so...
> 
> I had originally planned part of the following chapter to be a part of this one, fitting with the 'burnout' theme, but it ended up being too far in; the chapter would have been absolutely huge.


	14. Seeing Red

                                Chapter 14 – Seeing Red

 

After his vow to her, the two of them felt that much closer. There was hardly a waking moment that they weren’t in synergy. Splinter allowed them to remain in contact during April’s training, allowing her to draw from his expertise as she practiced her kata. Sparring with the guys was also always greatly amusing, as the two of them, coupled, had yet to lose a match. Their master had decided it was good practice for the rest of the turtles to go up against the synergists, to develop strategies against the pair. Leo was getting close… he hadn’t managed to beat them, but he was always trying a new strategy, trying to catch them off-guard and find the chink in their armor. It wasn’t exactly fair on him, though… it was just much easier to assess and predict what your opponent was going to do when you had two perspectives on him… and also a lot of fun toying with their opponents.

Currently, Leonardo was taking Donnie on single-handedly, with April sitting on the sidelines, tracking Leo’s movements. “Bring it on, Leo… whenever you’re ready,” April said in a timbre that was not her own.

He glared at Donnie, irritated. “Stop it,” he complained, circling.

“Stop what?” April asked innocently.

“Talking through April! It’s weird!”                                                                   

“Why?” April said roughly as Donnie raised an eyebrow, “Is it throwing you off your game?”

“By the way, Leo,” Donatello spoke in a high, effeminate voice with April’s cadence, “did you know you have these little liney bruises across the backs of your legs? Karai squeezing a little too hard of late?”

Leo twitched an eye. Raph and Mikey, also watching the match, chortled at their brother’s discomfort. Leo used a katana to point at April. “Don’t _you_ start now!”

Donnie struck quickly while Leo was distracted, jabbing his bo between Leonardo’s legs and knocked his feet out from under him. Leo landed hard on his plastron. “That wasn’t a fair round,” he gasped, getting up. “You’re supposed to be fighting, not trying to distract me!”

Donnie spoke April’s words again. “Isn’t distraction supposed to be one of a ninja’s most basic skills, though?”

Leo gave Donnie a death-glare. Donnie nodded to April, reminding him who was actually speaking. Leo gave them both sour looks.

Raph stood and shoved Leo off the mat. “I’ll show you how to beat ‘em…” he said, facing Donatello. He flipped his sai around confidently. Donnie spun his bo, ready to attack. Raph charged, eyes intent on Donnie, but as Donnie moved to defend, Raphael threw one of his sai at April. She shrieked and somersaulted backward out of its path as it embedded itself in the floor. In that moment, Donatello was on his own, and Raphael took his advantage, locking Donnie’s bo with his remaining sai, then punching him and taking him to the floor with a leg-sweep. Donnie coughed from the impact. Then as a final blow, and just to be mean, he kicked Donnie in the side of the head. Donatello grunted. Behind them, April yelped, grabbing her jaw.

“Raph! Stop!” Leo snapped.

Mikey dove to April’s side to help her, as she tried to blink back tears and failed, whimpering. “Raph, you asshole! You hurt April!”

Raph halted, about to give Donnie another kick. “I what? Aw, fuck…” He jogged over and knelt down beside her. “I’m sorry, April…” It was much easier for him to apologize to a girl, it seemed.

Donnie got back to his feet, rubbing his bruising jaw as everyone clustered around April. “No sympathy for the guy that actually got kicked in the face, though, huh?” he said using his own voice again. “I’m taking us out of synergy… you don’t need to feel this.” He felt her rage boiling up within her as he began stepping away. “Ohhh, April, don’t!”

A ringing slap echoed around the dojo space. Raphael hit the floor with a shocked gasp. He sat up, stunned, rubbing his face where she’d hit him. She jabbed a finger in his direction, eyes full of fire. “That’s for Donnie!”

Leo and Mikey stared down at him. “He deserved that.”

“Totally did.”

April hurried to Donnie’s side. “You okay?”

He smiled at her, then worked his jaw around to get it back in place. “Yeah, fine… Raph’s always played rough… We’re all kind of used to it.”

She guided him to the kitchen and obtained an ice pack from Ice Cream Kitty for him. He sat at the kitchen table, holding it to the side of his face. “He got past us…”

“Yeah, well… considering he kind of cheated…”

Donnie smiled at her wryly, then stopped, because it ached. “And what do you think we were doing? You probably should have been on your feet, so you could dodge if you needed to…”

She nodded. “If I’m too passive, I’m vulnerable.” Then she smirked. “He’s not gonna be able to pull that one on us again though!”

He gave her a weak smile. “Never gonna forget Raph’s look when you decked him. He had it coming.”

She returned it as she sat down in the chair next to his, taking his hand and stroking it. “Is there anything I can do for you?” He shook his head, reluctant to move his mouth any more than strictly necessary. “Anything I can do _to_ you?” she added seductively. He began to smile widely, then winced as his jaw began to throb. He shook his head again. “Then I’m gonna go make some calls. I have something special in mind for us for tonight,” she winked. “As long as you’re not too bruised up to eat, that is…”

“Nah… it’ll be fine,” he mumbled around the icepack. “Thank you, Sweetie.” He watched her go, then rose and relocated to his lab, pondering what she was up to with anticipation.

The mutagen distillation was nearly finished filtering through several layers of thick pieces of screen. The yield was on track with what he expected, he was pleased to see. He began preparing the enzymes with his free hand, the other holding the ice to his cheek. A little more than a week, and April’s retro-mutagen would be finished. He sighed. He didn’t look forward to having to convince Mr. O’Neil that his daughter wished to remain in her mutated state; he figured on Splinter being a bit more amenable, since he had been so supportive of their relationship and close contact. The new evidence from Kafka that it was possible to overcome the mutagen-induced aggression could be a major point in their favor… Of course, that meant admitting that April had a problem with her sexual appetite. And that might lead to some awkward questions about their level of intimacy…

_…I don’t care how good a ninja you are… they will never find all the pieces of you…_

Oh god… he was going to die.

Maybe he’d just let April take the lead on this one.

 

She led him down the tunnels, carrying their picnic basket. “It’s been so long since we went on one of our platform picnics, I thought it would be a nice change of pace,” April explained. “Murokami-san put everything together and Dad brought it down. I hope you like it… How’s your jaw?”

Donnie opened his mouth, testing the pain-level. “Not terrible. Little irritating.”

She shook her head. “I still don’t believe Raph… The nerve of that turtle! What a complete bastard, to kick you in the face when you were down…” she ranted. “Ahh, here we are.” She hopped up onto the platform from the long-abandoned tracks. Diffuse light filtered through a number of grates in the ceiling as though they had been designed as skylights for the former station.

Donnie followed her leave, seating himself beside her. “Well? What do we have here?” he queried, curiously opening one side of the basket.

April slammed it shut again. “Tut! No peeking!” she reprimanded. “I have to set everything up first. Close your eyes.”

Donnie rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically in mock-annoyance, but complied. “You’re so full of surprises and secrets these days,” he observed.

“Are you complaining?” she asked, a wry smile evident in her voice.

He shook his head. “Just saying…”

“It’s just for fun… a little added intrigue spices things up. It makes things that much more… alluring.” She drizzled coyness on every word. “You can look now.”

He opened his eyes and immediately had to force down the surge of arousal that hit him. “Oh, my…” he gulped. Speaking of alluring…

She lay before him on her side, casual as anything, looking up at him expectantly as she propped herself in place with her elbow. Her firm, toned thigh lay before him, and on it, beautifully and carefully arranged, were several pieces of sushi, pizza gyoza, and a stack of pickled ginger. She herself had a small tray from which she plucked a tuna roll with chopsticks.

He looked up to her.   “Do I get any of those?” he asked playfully, eyeing the chopsticks, already knowing the answer.

“Nope,” she answered devilishly, transferring the tuna roll to her mouth with smug delicacy.

“I didn’t think so.” He grinned wryly and bent to her thigh, picked up a shrimp nigiri with his teeth, then licked off the remaining mirin from her leg. “Very tasty,” he said, dipping his head for another piece.

One by one, the sushi disappeared into his mouth, and each time, April was given shivers by his tongue cleaning the remaining stickiness from her leg. He looked up, captured her eyes with his, and they sank into their blissful synergy.   _More?_ she asked when he had cleaned her thigh of the feast, though she already knew that he did. She laid out another course, carefully balancing the pieces of sushi and gyoza on her thigh for him.

He ate off of her contentedly, despite the minor throbbing still in his jaw, but he moved at a snail’s pace, knowing full well that she wished he’d step it up a bit. _I’m going to have to think of something to surprise her with one of these days…_ he thought to himself, not caring that she heard it as well.

 _There’s no hurry,_ she thought back to him. _As long as they let us stay together, we’ll have all the time in the world…_

She had a point, but he was still dubious on the matter. What if her father and Splinter refused— _made_ him hand the retro-mutagen over? There wasn’t a chance he could stand up to his master, nor did he have the faintest desire to do so.

What he did have a desire for, increasingly so, was more of her. He nibbled along her thigh, grazing it gently with his teeth. When he had made his way up her thigh, he tipped her over and nipped at the inner part of her leg. She squealed aloud. _Donnie! That tickles!_

 _I know,_ he thought back with a smirk on his face. _But –I– enjoy it!_ He nibbled her again, eliciting another high-pitched scream from her as she batted ineffectually at him.

 _But not as much as something we both like_ , she suggested, drawing his attention away from tickling her.

 _No,_ he agreed, as his member escaped from under his shell, _not as much as that._

He made love to her slowly and gently, savoring each motion, each thrust, as much as he had enjoyed the aching slowness he had taken eating from her. She closed her eyes, giving melodious little moans as he moved within her. Each one seemed to range across a number of tones, such that as he drove her to ecstasy, her cries became a song. He wished he could keep her going forever, but the insistent hardness of his own pleasured parts wasn’t going to hold out much more.

He had hoped that he could produce a beautiful sound as he came, to counterpoint hers, but all he managed was a strained, choked gasp. He reddened in the cheeks at being unable to complement her lovely melody, feeling shamefully inadequate, but her love surrounded him, letting him know that it was okay, that she appreciated what he was going for. His own love surged back to her for her acceptance. _Oh, April…_ He couldn’t help but want her even more. He cursed his body’s refractory period, urging it to hurry the hell up. In the meantime, he lay beside her, planting soft kisses on her plastron as he reached across her to stroke her neck. She lay breathing heavily, staring up at the grates in the ceiling.

“Look…” she said aloud. “You can see some of the sunset!” She sounded awed, and he remembered just how long she had been underground now, and that seeing sunsets would be a rarity for her if she stayed. She turned over and pushed herself to her feet, still looking up through the grate at the orange shine across the clouds. He followed, grabbed her by her shell and lifted her upward, letting her step up onto his shoulders. With the higher perspective, she could see more through the grating. He looked above him as well, watching the orange turn pink, then red, then fade away into dusk within minutes. But while her eyes were on the sunset, his were on the thick bars of the grate… the bars of a jail cell. The sewers would be her prison. She didn’t see it that way now, he knew, but someday, she might.

Feeling his sorrow, she dropped down from his shoulders, landing light-footedly. _I’m not trapped,_ she lectured. _Once the retro-mutagen is finished, I have the option to go, but, Donnie… sunsets happen every day. There will always be more sunsets. But there’s only one of you… and I’m not giving you up!_ She clasped his hands in hers. _This is our one chance to be together, to be happy! I’m not throwing that away._

Donnie shook his head. _I worry that sooner or later, you’ll regret it…,_ and a quieter thought added, (( _and then you’ll leave and we’ll never be together again…)) You’ll eventually start to miss things, like going shopping, or out to eat, seeing your friends from school. Going to weddings or funerals. Going outside in daylight and actually seeing the sunset… You’ll miss things eventually. You’ll want to be human again._ (( _And once you go, there’s no coming back…_ )), the little voice added dismally. _I only ever want you to be happy… and what’s best for you, even if it hurts me. ((…and it will…))_ Donnie was starting to get aggravated at the little background voice’s insistence on being heard, and tried to suppress it. _I don’t want to steal chances that you might only be able to have once in your lifetime because you’re stuck down here._

 _((I don’t want to be alone again)),_ the thought insistently pushed through his barriers. (( _I’m afraid to lose you…_ ))

April wrapped her arms as far as she could around the side of his shell. _I won’t ever leave you_ , she said, staring into his eyes, much less conflicted than him. _You are half of me… I can’t leave half of myself!_ She restated what she had said a few days before _: I don’t want to go._ She paused to consider what he’d brought up. _Yet. Maybe someday. But not yet._

Desire began welling up inside of her, and his need for her echoed it. They held each other deeply in their eyes for a moment before diving into a voracious series of kisses. April broke away from him after a moment, bending to collect their picnic basket, and with it hooked over her arm, she pulled him by the hands. _C’mon… you haven’t seen the curtains yet. And maybe you can help me decide what else to improve…_

 

Donnie had to admit, the derelict car definitely had a warmer, softer feel to it now. And it was lighter; she had wired a string of white Christmas lights to the one functioning fluorescent light. The ceiling resembled a starred sky. He had to admit, they looked good, as did the curtains: one set done in vertical red and dark teal stripes, matching the dark green of the armchair, the other in a wild, comic-book onomatopoeia pattern on a yellow background, both with homey curtain folds. He was surprised—not with April’s handiwork; he had known she had the knowledge to make what she was intending, and that she was handy enough with a drill to put them up nicely—but that Raphael hadn’t seemed to have done anything to them. He had either acceded to their presence or actually liked the addition.

“I made these too,” she said, pointing first to a wooden shelf, then to a magazine rack, both supported with a wooden strut and bolted to the side of the subway car. “Dad had this old busted chair he swore he was going to fix one of these days, but he gave it up when I asked if I could use it. I got Leo to slice it up for me.”

“ ’s nice,” he nodded. “What’s this for?” he asked, pointing to the rack.

“Comic books,” she said casually. “Raph’s got a stack of them under the mattress… they’re starting to make it lumpy, so I figured I’d give him somewhere to put them.”

Donnie chuckled, shaking his head at her innocence. “Oh, Honey…” he said, shaking his head, ”I can guarantee Raph doesn’t come out here to read comic books…”

“What?’ she cried, disbelieving. “Then what are all of th—“ she began, pulling a magazine from beneath the mattress and gawking as the centerfold flopped out, revealing a female leg clad in fishnet stocking. “Oh,” she stated, eyes wide, innocence broken. Curious, she opened the spread further. “Oh, there’s no way _those_ are real,” she scoffed. “But I wonder if I could…”

She folded the porno mag neatly back together and tossed it in the rack, then struck a pose similar to that of the centerfold on the mattress. On her hands and knees, she stalked toward him. It was difficult to make a turtle look cat-like, but she was doing an admirable job of it. He couldn’t help but ogle her, especially with her putting on such a show for him. “Donnie,” she purred, “help—“

“No… help _me,_ ” he interrupted, seizing her.

 

Donatello felt weak in the legs as they returned, and April wasn’t much better off. After five more rounds of sex, and a quickie on the way back, they had exhausted themselves. Raph was leaning on one of the turnstiles as they walked in shakily.

“ ’bout time,” he complained immediately. “You guys leave a mess?” They shook their heads. He turned to April. “The additions… they’re nice,” he told her. “I was thinking… maybe, open the curtains when you’re done, close ‘em when you’re… ya know… using the place.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Donnie agreed. Raph waved as he left the lair, and April also took her leave of Donnie to go shower.

Completely spent, he flopped down on a bench in front of the TV beside Leo, who gave him the barest of glances. “You are such an enabler…” Leo grumped at him.

“What…?” he started to reply.

“Donnie! Come on!” his brother snapped at him. “You guys go off for hours at a time and come back exhausted, and then you’re totally distracted during patrol. It’s not good for you, either of you!”

“Leo, how many ti—“

“SHE IS MANIPULATING YOU,” Leonardo fired back, emphasizing every word. “And you just go along with it! I know you think April will come through this like Kafka did… but that could take months! You don’t have that kind of time-frame to work with, and every time you guys do it, you’re just making things worse for her!”

Donnie looked taken aback. “Manipulating me?! No, Leo… you’re wrong… I—”

“Have you ever told her no? Even once?”

“Yes!” he countered in an insulted tone, though at the moment, he couldn’t really remember when… sometime last week? Leo glared at him skeptically. A wave of guilt hit Don under his brother’s stare, and Leo could clearly see it.

“You _have_ to exercise some control over her, or she’s not ever going to improve. Even if it’s the last week before her cure is ready… She’s running you into the ground! And Master Splinter did not give you extra time off to fool around with April… You’re supposed to be helping her!”

“Leonardo is right,” Splinter’s voice sounded from behind them. Both of them looked upward to him. “Might I have a word with you, Donatello?” It was always amazing how gentle and unassuming Splinter could make an order sound.

Donnie nodded, then rose and followed his sensei back to Splinter’s private quarters. The rat mutant motioned for Donatello to sit, then set a pot of tea and two cups on the table between them. “The arrangement for you to calm April’s lust… how do you think it is going?”

Donnie went red in the cheeks, knowing he hadn’t put nearly enough effort into it. “I suppose I haven’t been trying very hard…” he admitted.

“Indeed? And why is this?”

He stared into his tea, rather than meeting his master’s eyes. “She hasn’t wanted to—We haven’t been in synergy as much as we could have been, I guess,” he began. “Until the beginning of last week… either one of us has been too tired to risk it, or the circumstances didn’t permit it… or she had some surprise planned for me… Or it was just bad timing all around.”

“And today, during your training?”

“Today, I broke it off because I didn’t want her to feel my pain.”

Splinter nodded. “This is understandable. One never wishes to see their loved one hurting. Yet many of these instances, even the shared pain, seem to be rather trivial… would you agree?”

“Yes, Sensei,” Donnie murmured to his tea.

The ninjutsu master rose, circling the table. “And Leonardo has brought it to my attention that the two of you are… enjoying each other much too frequently, to the point of exhaustion,” he worded tactfully.

“Yes, Sensei,” Donatello muttered again guiltily.

Splinter wandered around the back of him. “I had hoped that your will would be able to tame hers, but I see that this is not the case, perhaps from lack of trying. In the remaining week, you _must_ try to control her. I have only seen her becoming more and more demanding and controlling of you. The sooner she is restored to normal, the better it will be for her.”

Donnie’s head snapped up, even as his stomach dropped. The time had come. “Sensei… she wants to stay,” he all but whispered. “She wants to stay with me.”

Splinter’s jaw fell open slightly, then closed again as his eyes did the same. He stood motionless for several moments, eventually emitting a heavy sigh and shaking his head. Meeting Donnie’s eyes, he pronounced, “What one desires and what one _needs_ are rarely the same thing.”

Don gawped. “No… Sensei, no… She can get past this, the same way Kafka cured himself…”

“April and the beetle differ in many ways, my son. What worked for him may not for her. Would you gamble on her losing more of herself in the process?”

He shook his head, both in disagreement and incredulity. “She said you would try to send her back against her will, that between you and her father, she had no say in what happens to her… that what she feels has no bearing on her own fate. You’d really take her choice away from her?”

Splinter cast a piercing glare at him. “Under the circumstances, her choice is invalid. We do not know that she makes it with a clear head, or merely to mislead.”

“Sensei, please!” Donnie begged. “She hasn’t even had a fair chance to recover, and that’s partially my fault! Please, give her a chance!”

The master considered this, stroking his beard. “We will find out nothing without trying. If you can bring her to alter her behavior within the week, even slightly, I will allow her to remain with us in her current form, and we will put the question to Kirby O’Neil.”

“Oh, thank you, Sensei! _Arigatou gozaimasu_!”

“However,” Splinter went on strictly, “she is your charge. It lies with you to bring her under control.”

“ _Hai_ , Sensei!” Donnie thrust his chest out, fully and gratefully accepting the duty.”

The rat nodded. “I wish you both _ganbare_. You are dismissed.”

Donnie rose and bowed deeply to his master. “Thank you, Sensei.” He left the room with a desperate sense of purpose.

 

April joined him in his lab when she finished her shower. “There. I was kind of hoping you’d come help me get clean again, but…” She caught his stern look, and her bubbliness subsided. “What ’s up?”

Donnie gazed sadly at her. “We need to talk.” He relayed his conversations with Leonardo and Splinter through their link. _It needs to stop_ , he said softly. _We need to get you under control, or they’re going to make me hand over the retro-mutagen._

April looked stunned, and fearful. _No! You promised you wouldn’t!_

 _I know,_ he replied, _and I intend to keep my promise. And that means we have to work on getting this nymphomania out of your system._

 _I can’t, Donnie! I can’t get it to stop!_ she cried. Even now, her desire reached out for him.

_Yes, you can… you can fight it… I know you can, Sweet…_

_What if I can’t?!_ she panicked. _What if it’s not enough improvement, and they come for me anyway?!_

He pulled her to him. _Calm down,_ he soothed against her racing mind, though it seemed to do very little to dissuade her.

_We could run away! You and me… maybe somewhere down the coast, or—_

_April, listen to me…_

_…and then we could have all the sex we wanted! Nobody would be around to stop us!_

_APRIL! Stop!_

_Help me! Oh, Donnie, I want you so much right now… help me!_

She had been asking that of him for weeks. Now it dawned on him what help she was asking for. He felt like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner… she truly _couldn’t_ stop herself, even if she’d wanted to.

Pleasure shot through them both as she reached inside his shell, stroking the delicate skin there. He reached back and grabbed her hand. _No,_ he told her, gripping her one hand and catching the other as she went to pull the same trick with that one.

 _Just once, Donnie?_ she begged. _Just one more time?_

 _No!_ he said firmly. _We just did it seven times! SEVEN!_

_One more, before they make us stop… please? Please, Donnie?_

_April… I’m raw! Are you even listening to anything I’ve said?_

_Donnie! I need you!_

He looked down at her stolidly. _No. What you NEED is to try to hold yourself back._ She fought against his hands, but he held them tight. _Come on… you can beat this. Calm down and meditate with me…_ He guided her down to the floor, sitting next to her. The distraction and calming exercises did seem to distance her from her raging lust. It was still there; he could feel it, waiting at the edge of her consciousness to strike again when it could catch her unaware, but its potency was ebbing for the time being.

An hour of meditation seemed to have beaten the power out of her libido, and he allowed her to get up. _There. You’re doing better already,_ he sent to her proudly. _See? We can do this._

 _You’re right,_ she replied, sounding a bit distant herself. Her worries of being reverted were still at the forefront of her mind. Then it took a different tack. _I have homework to do… I should probably disconnect from you._

Don frowned at her. He bumped her forehead with his. _We’re supposed to stay connected as much as_ possible _, you know._

She gave him a wry grin. _Solve (4+x)/12=2 for x,_ she fired at him.

 _Twenty,_ he replied almost instantly. The corner of her mouth turned further upward. Donnie let out a frustrated sigh. Obviously, if she was connected to his rapid-fire brain, she wasn’t learning the material for herself. It may as well have been cheating. _All right, you’ve made your point…_ _But afterward, we’re going right back into synergy._

 _Right,_ she agreed.

_You’ll be okay on your own? You can keep it at bay yourself?_

_Yes, I’ll be fine. I’ve got it under control now._

He wasn’t sure he believed that entirely, but he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt nonetheless.

 _I’m okay. I’ve got it,_ she reassured as they dropped out of synergy. _I’ll come right back when I’m done._

He watched her grab her bookbag and spread out along the steps with her math homework. Donnie breathed an exhausted sigh, both emotionally and physically taxed to the limit by the day’s events and emotional roller-coaster. His bruised jaw began to throb again. He sought a little relief in the privacy of his lab. The predictability and stability of science was always a balm to him when the chaos of the rest of the world became too much for him.

He hauled a container of mutagen from the mini-fridge —standard mutagen, what a relief to get back to normalcy… if dealing with mutagen at all was normal—and began transferring it to test tubes, and then to the centrifuge. With April’s retro-mutagen in its final stages, he had begun on one for Frito, getting started on the long and tedious process once again. Donnie had to admit, it was a change of pace to give priority to someone else, and on a project he already knew worked.

With everything in process, he set his head down on his outstretched arms on the desk. The lulling _whum_ of the machines, paired with his exhaustion, made it impossible to keep his eyes open, and he started dozing off.

It was only for a moment. He shook himself awake. There was no point letting himself fall asleep here… He decided he would go keep April company instead. Not to help, not to be in synergy with her, just to be near her. And maybe he could finagle a shoulder massage out of her… Well, no... that would probably just fire her up again. But the company would be nice, at least.

He emerged from the lab, looking to the entryway for her. Her books and things were still there, spread out across the step she’d been laying on, but she herself wasn’t there. “April?” he called, and received no response. He checked the kitchen to see if she’d just gotten up for a snack, but she wasn’t there either. “April?” he tried again, checking the back of the lair to see if she’d gone to use the bathroom, but again, no April.

“Hey, Mikey… have you seen April anywhere?” he asked his brother, who he spotted laying on a bench reading comic books.

Mikey looked up. “Oh yeah… she got up and left, like, a while ago.”

Donnie blinked. “What? Did she say why, or where she was going?”

Mikey shook his head. “Not a word. Just… left.” Don gave him a thin-lipped look of concern and dashed for the turnstiles.

Something gnawed at the pit of Donnie’s stomach as he jogged out of the lair. He tried to rationalize his doubts away… she’d forgotten something at the platform where they’d had their picnic, or at the subway car… that was all. Surely that was all. He called for her several times, never receiving an answer except from his own voice echoing through the tunnels.

He shouted for her again just before he reached the subway car, then silenced himself as he approached it. The red and teal curtain was drawn over the window. Ah, right… Raph had gone out as the two of them had come back. He heard a pleasured moan from his brother and sniggered a bit to himself. He wondered offhand which centerfold Raph was enjoying as he started to sneak silently past, when a second voice reached him: “Ohh, Raph!”

Donatello felt as though he’d been plunged into ice water. _No…_ The thought spurred him to a run and he flung the doors open as he reached the car.

He could only stare.

Raph’s eyes went wide in surprise at his brother’s equally shocked frown. “Donnie!” April also looked up from her position, straddled across him and clearly in ecstasy.

Donnie’s expression went from shocked, to hurt, to hardened. Wordlessly, he turned and bolted.

“Donnie, wait—get off me, April!” Raph hollered after him, struggling to get up. Donnie was nearly out of earshot when he heard Raph’s angered yell of, “I said get off!” followed by a yelp from April and a thump as her shell hit the floor. “Donnie!” Raph yelled, pursuing him.

 

Donatello ran blindly. He didn’t know where he was going, nor did he care. He just felt the need to put as much distance between himself and that scene as possible. He’d run to Florida if it made the picture of Raph and April leave his mind. He was deaf to Raph’s yelling, somewhere behind him. Raph was strong, but Donnie was lighter and his longer legs propelled him forward faster. Raph’s shouts would do nothing to stop him.

Running out of ground, _that_ would stop him. He hadn’t noticed that he was coming up on the septic system in his enraged run until the tunnel opened up before him. He skidded with a yelp as his momentum carried him out over the edge. He twisted in the air, reaching back for the ledge with both hands and missing it by millimeters. As he started to fall, a green hand reached out and grabbed his wrist, changing his course from outward to being swung into the wall… which, decidedly, was the better option, even if he hit it hard enough to knock the air out of him.

“I gotcha, little brother,” Raph said, straining from the effort of holding onto Donnie with one arm, the other gripping the sai he had used to anchor himself to the concrete.

Don planted his feet against the wall and climbed up onto the ledge with Raph’s help, sitting down hard on the concrete floor as he cleared the edge. “Thanks,” he puffed, heaving for breath.

“Bros before hoes,” Raph said, taking a seat next him. “Always.” After a moment, he added, “What the hell, man?”

All of Donnie’s rage came flooding back. “Me, what the hell?! ME?! I catch you banging April, and you’re calling _me_ irrational for it?!”

“No,” Raphael smirked. “I’m calling you irrational for running off a cliff.”

Donnie ignored the attempt at humor. “What the actual fuck, Raph?! You think you can just go after other people’s girlfriends?!”

Raph held his hands up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa… She came to _me_ , man! She said you broke up.”

Donnie stared at him incredulously. “What?!”

“I was there on my own… you know, enjoying Miss October… I was already thirty strokes on when April bursts in, sobbing, saying you two broke up. And then she was just all over me… I figured she just wanted some sympathy sex and she’d go back to you when you got back together…”

Don let out a frustrated growl. “She tricked you too, then. We didn’t break up… though that may be the case soon enough after _this_.” He stood, pacing around the tunnel. “Leo didn’t tell you,” he decided.

“Tell me what?” Raph asked quizzically.

“There’s something wrong with her… her mutation seems to be hyper-powering her sex-drive. I was in denial about it, but I can’t keep denying there’s a problem. I mean, look at this… I try to rein her in a bit, tell her no, and she runs off to the first available sexual partner she can find…”

Raph gave him a wide-eyed look. “That explains a lot, actually.”

“Even so, Raph, what in Darwin’s name possessed you to give in to her?!”

His brother let out a bark of laughter. “Are you for real? Do you have any idea how hard it is to see you two together, and know that that’s something I’ll never have?” Raph rose, staring out over the water treatment plant. “She’s possibly the only female mutant turtle in the world, and you’ve got her… it’s hands off for the rest of us. And then I have to watch you guys being happy, pairing off… you and April, Leo and Karai… me and my hand and Miss October. So when a stunningly beautiful, _suddenly available_ turtle girl throws herself at me, begging for me to fuck her… hell yes, I’m gonna hit that like a low hand of Blackjack!” He shifted his eyes to Donnie. “She had me fooled, man. She said she wanted me to help her forget what happened. Otherwise, I never would have…”

Donnie sighed. “I figured Leo might have mentioned it to you that she was getting more aggressive… He said he didn’t want me to be the last to know, but I thought at the least that he told you… I should have been more up-front about it with everyone… but then, I never had any indication that she would do this the minute I wasn’t satisfying her…”

Raph patted him on the back. “No way you could have known. She’s always had a sharp mind… just, she’s always been using it for us rather than against us. What could you have done, keep her tied up?”

“Heh, yeah,” Don snorted. “I suppose we should head back. _Someone_ is going to get a very stern talking-to.”

 

They doubled back the way Donnie had run, returning to the subway car. “April?” Donatello called, receiving no answer. After Raph had sent her sprawling, she had apparently not stuck around waiting for either Raph or Donnie to come back. Suspicion crept into Donnie’s stomach.

“Think she went back to the lair?” Raph asked.

“Sure hope so…” Donnie replied, not wanting to think about what kind of trouble a rogue mutant could get up to on the surface. The two of them set off at a run.

The lair was fairly quiet when they arrived, the only noise coming from Leo watching a rerun of his Space Heroes show. Leo started at their frenzied search of the place. “Guys? What’s up?”

“Leo… Have you seen April?” Donnie checked.

“No… not for a couple of hours. Weren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye on her?”

“Yes, but she… got away from me.” Leo folded his arms and glared at Donnie in disapproval.

Raphael glanced around in realization. “Where’s Mikey?”

At that moment, the turtle in question came pelting and screaming past the lair’s entrance. “Help!! Aaaaahhh!!”

And then came April, fast on his tail. “Come back here, Mikey! I just need you to fuck me!”

“Oh,” said Donnie in a rather desensitized way. “There they are.”

Leo blinked, aghast. Raph guffawed. “I think she may be barking up the wrong tree with that one…”

Mikey came running back the other direction in front of the lair. “Guys, help! April’s gone totally berserk!”

“You’ll like it, Mikey! I promise!” April called, still pursuing him.

“Guess we better help him out,” Leo motioned, moving to the turnstiles. The others followed, and as Mikey led April back toward them, the three of them pounced on her.

 

“Guys, please… I’m fine! You don’t need to do this!” the female turtle pleaded as the others proceeded to hogtie her using Mikey’s kusarigama chain. “I just need someone’s cock inside me… you can even take turns! I need your help!”

“April, you may not believe it, but this _is_ help,” Leonardo told her. “Listen to what’s coming out of your mouth!”

Donnie only watched as Mikey and Leo hefted her onto the tire swing. “Is this really the best we can do with her?”

“We can’t have her running loose, can we?” Raph snapped back at him. “Not when she’s trying to rape Mikey…”

“Please, Donnie…” she begged. “Please, don’t let them do this to me… I love you!”

It was the most manipulative use of the words Donnie had ever heard, and it forced his lip to curl in disgust. The words he had always longed to hear from her rang empty. They held no emotion, only a bid for her freedom, another attempt to use him, and they bit into him like the blades of knives. He felt he had no option other than to retaliate. “If you loved me,” he began softly, voice rising to a yell, “you wouldn’t have gone and SLEPT WITH RAPH!”

Mikey and Leo stepped back from April as if burned. Raph looked slightly shamefaced and wouldn’t meet his brothers’ glances.

“Donnie, please… just fuck me, and everything can go back to being the way it was—“

Donnie bristled, temper erupting. He untied his mask, shoved it between her teeth and tied it tight behind her head. “That’s enough out of you, you silver-tongued little minx!” Her eyes brimmed with tears as she looked up sorrowfully into his. She tried to connect with him; he blocked her harshly, a scowl etched across his face. “And nothing can ever, _ever_ go back to the way it was! Not now.” He stormed away, fighting the urge to smack her.

He retreated to the relative privacy of his lab, where he collapsed onto the desk, sobbing silently into his hands. Suddenly, the remaining week couldn’t pass fast enough.

 

The paper door of Splinter’s study slid open, and the rat mutant stepped out. “What is going on out here?!” he demanded, responding to the noise, but spotting the bound and gagged female turtle almost immediately. He whirled angrily on his students. “Is this level of restraint truly necessary?”

“Sensei, she’s gone completely off her rocker!” Raphael explained as Splinter began untying the gag from April’s mouth.

“Sensei, no, don’t—!” Leo started, grimacing.

April looked desperately up at the ninja master as Donnie’s mask was pulled from her mouth. “Sensei, please help! None of them will have sex with me! Maybe you should show them how it’s done!” She looked up at Splinter, giving him bedroom eyes. “Your student is ready for you, Master—mmph!” Splinter, shocked at the sudden proposition, shoved the gag back in her mouth.

“Yes, apparently it _is_ necessary,” he decided, stoic, but wide-eyed. “It appears Donatello has been unsuccessful.”

“He tried,” Raph defended, uncharacteristically quiet, “but she got the better of us. It wasn’t Donnie’s fault.”

Splinter gave him the barest of nods. “I was afraid she might prove to be too much of a challenge in her altered state, and Donatello’s fondness for her often clouds his vision.”

“Are we really going to keep her tied up until Donnie can fix her?” asked Mikey.

Leo nodded. “We can’t risk her getting away, unpredictable as she is. I suggest we take four-hour watches, looking after her—“

“No, Leo…” Donnie said, reemerging from his sanctum, red-eyed.

Leo paused, raising an eyebrow. “No?”

Donnie shook his head somberly. “Psychotic or not, she’s still my responsibility.” He looked down at her with a melancholic passivity, in stark contrast of his outbursts at her minutes before. “I’ll take care of her.”

“You’re sure?” Leonardo checked. “After all, you keep saying that…”

Donatello nodded slowly. “After all this, she can’t fool me anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I was being so clever when I came up with the title of this chapter. After I finished this fic, I started browsing the fanfic archives, and could only roll my eyes at the number of fics by this name. Of course it's not an original title... it's way too obvious. Nevertheless, it does still work on several levels here. Husband thought I was referring to April by the title, actually, since Casey calls her Red.
> 
> Sushi feast on the leg was inspired by a picture by MommySpike, Naked Sushi.


	15. Catch As Catch Can

Chapter 15 – Catch As Catch Can

 

Donnie sat April on her knees and untied his mask from her mouth. She immediately launched into trying to entice him to having sex with her again. “Donnie, please, just f—mmph!” He stuffed a riceball into her mouth, pushing it in firmly.

“Don’t talk, just eat,” he instructed with a despondent sort of annoyance. He refused to look her in the eyes; he’d already made the mistake of letting her connect to him once, and the rolling tide of her lust nearly bowled him over. Only the bitterness of her betrayal held him back; he would have gladly thrown her down and taken her otherwise, with all of her emotions taking him over. And somewhere beneath all that desire was the person he knew, begging to get out, forced under by that uncontrollable libido.

He chided himself again for not figuring out sooner what the help was she was asking for. Perhaps if he’d caught it earlier, he could have stopped things from going so far. Then there was his own shortsighted denial that anything had been wrong, perpetuated by the pleasure she brought him. He had to admit, he hadn’t wanted to stop either. Part of him wished that he had given in when she’d wanted to run away. Maybe they would have been happier for it. But then, that was denial again, wasn’t it?

She started to speak again. He popped another riceball into her mouth before she could form a word and held it there with a finger. “Oh, April…” he breathed. “Why did you have to go and ruin everything?”

She let out a tiny gasp, and her eyes brimmed with tears that trickled down her cheeks as she turned her head away. Donnie could see that he’d stung her. He wasn’t sure whether to feel pity or grief or anger at her. Perhaps it was all three, but anger was definitely edging out the other two. She finished the bite in her mouth and swallowed, but refused to accept any more from him. She also didn’t say anything: no begging, no propositions. For the moment, the real April seemed to be surfacing as remorse drove back desire, or maybe it was just another ploy for sympathy… Donnie couldn’t tell, and it wasn’t worth his time to try to make the distinction. His emotions were exhausted; he felt broken. He held out the mask he’d used to gag her. She opened her mouth for it with no protest, continuing to cry silently as if accepting a punishment she knew she deserved.

He untied the chain from her legs, letting her walk before him to the bathroom, not giving her the opportunity to jump him from behind if she got any ideas. She hadn’t tried it in the three days she had been bound so far, but unstable as she was, it was better not to take the chance. After she relieved herself, he brought her back to the living room. “Sitting or kneeling, or on your back or belly,” Donnie listed her options for her position for the next couple of hours, as had been their routine for the past few days. She leaned forward onto the bench and allowed her legs to be bound behind her again. “Here, floor, bed, or the swing?” he asked. She thought for a second, then used her chin to point toward the tire swing. He picked up the bundle of hogtied turtle and carried her to the swing, making sure she was resting stably in it.

Donnie stared at her for a moment. She made a pathetic picture, wrapped in chains and unable to move. The trails of her tears, still wet on her cheeks, made her look especially broken. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was for doing this to her, and yet, he still hated her for going to Raph. Part of him wanted to see her suffer; it was her own damn fault, anyway.

Or was it? If she didn’t have any control over her actions, and her libido had propelled her toward Raph, could you call it her fault?

Maybe the better question to ask was if he cared. No, he was bound and determined to hold onto his anger; it was the only foothold he had to keep himself from giving in to his softer feelings for her, and possibly making another mistake. He glared at her, then felt bad for doing it.

Mikey slid open the dojo door. “Yo, D, you coming? I don’t wanna go up against Raph and Leo alone…”

“Yeah, Mikey… be there in a second,” he replied, then turned back to April. “I’ll be back in a couple hours. If you need anything, scream.”

She mumbled something through her gag. Donnie ignored her and headed off to train with his brothers, leaving her alone.

 

Casey leapt over the gates with a hand-plant. “What’s up, yo?” he announced, looking around to see no one. “Aw man… wasted a perfectly good entrance. Hello? Anybody home?”

The shouts and clashes of weapons in the dojo drew his attention, but he was immediately distracted by a muffled “Mmm! Mmmmph!” from the tire swing.

Casey blinked at the bound, gagged turtle in the swing. “April? …the hell?!” He raced over to her and untied the gag from her mouth.

She breathed a sigh of relief at having it removed. “Casey! Help me… “ she whispered. “You gotta get me out of here!”

Casey immediately pulled the kusarigama loose from the chains and began unwrapping her. “What happened, Red? Who did this to you?!”

“The turtles! They’re planning on keeping me here… as their own personal sexual plaything!”

“What?!” He shook his head. “No way! Donnie wouldn’t—“

She cut him off. “Shhh… keep your voice down! Look whose mask was in my mouth.”

He looked down at the purple cloth. “No…” He turned his gaze back to her with heartbroken disbelief. Enraged, he set his jaw and yanked furiously at the chains still binding her arms and hands, freeing her at last.

She gasped gratefully, rubbing her wrists. “Come on…” she whispered, grabbing his hand and towing him toward the steps.

Casey scrunched up his face dumbfoundedly as he climbed the steps, trailing her. “But… This doesn’t make any sense… I thought Donnie was working on a restoration thingy for you… with the special mutagen and all… ”

She stopped his thought process by drawing close to him, seeming as though she intended to kiss him. “Casey? Thank you. And I’m sorry.”

He froze. “Sorry? For wha—OOF!” She kicked his feet out from under him, then drew his hockey stick from his back and cracked him across the back of the head with it before he could get to his feet. He went down and didn’t move. “I’ll make it up to you someday,” she said, dashing for the gates, pausing as she spied the bowl full of smoke bombs. She couldn’t get to her tessen, securely out of her possession on the weapon rack in the dojo, but there were small weapons in the lair she could equip herself with… just in case they tried to stop her.

Moving silently, she climbed the steps and tiptoed over Casey’s prone form. She was about to start into a run when he reached out and grabbed her ankle, tripping her. She let out a startled yelp as she fell to her hands. She kicked backward and yanked her foot out of his grasp. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him more than necessary, but now he was interfering too much with her escape. She swung his hockey stick at his head. He dodged backward as he got a knee under him, reached out and caught the blade between his hands. “Haa…” he smirked, gripping the handle and starting to pull it away from her. Judging his intent, she let go and landed a powerful jump-kick to the butt of the stick, driving the blade hard into a shocked Casey’s chest. Between the strength of his pull and her kick, he caught air down the steps, landing in a rolling heap.

“I’m so sorry!” she called back as she fled.

 

Leonardo turned his head, taking his attention off his spar with Raph. “Did you hear something just now?”

“NO,” Raphael replied definitively, twisting his sai against Leo’s katanas, “and quit trying to distract me.”

“I’m serious, Raph! I heard something… like something hitting the floor.”

Donnie, under an onslaught of blows from Mikey’s nun-chucks, cocked an eye toward Leo and Raph’s conversation. Then he heard a shriek… and it didn’t sound gagged. “April…” he realized, concern for her immediately flooding him despite trying to maintain his anger at her. He ducked out from under Mikey’s attacks and ran for the door, nearly overtaking Leo and Raph as they went to check out the source of the noise, Mikey trailing after him. “April!” he called, suddenly desperate to know she was all right. He rounded the doorframe and gaped at what he saw. “Aw, fuck…” he spat, realizing what had transpired.

“Casey!” Leo ran to the battered teen, who sat up dizzily.

Donatello called for April again futilely, knowing she wasn’t in the lair. He ran to the gates, looking one direction and then the other for her, but there was no trace of her.

“What happened?” Leo asked, already suspecting what the answer would be.

“April… I unchained her, and she jumped me…” he answered fuzzily.

“Why’d you let her loose?!” Donnie snapped at him.

The young man gasped as his head throbbed. He squinted back at Donnie. “She said… you all were keeping her as a sex slave…”

Raph snorted. “And you believed that?!”

“Gross…” Mikey interjected, sticking his tongue out in distaste.

“Well, no,” Casey answered. “Not exactly… but when I got too suspicious, bam.” He mimed being punched in the head.

Leo sighed and shook his head, throwing Donnie a knowing but accusational look before turning back to Casey. “Did you see which way she went?”

Casey gave him a tiny shake of his head.

“Did she…” Donnie started to ask the awkward question. “Did she try to seduce you or make you have sex with her?”

Casey gawked at him. “What the hell kind of question is that?!”

They all breathed a sigh of relief. “That sounds like a no, at least…” Leo guessed.

“She’s sick in the head,” Raph explained. “The mutation is driving her sex-crazy, and kind of making her a compulsive liar too… She’ll do anything to get what she wants, including manipulating people any way she can.”

“Looks like she only goes for turtles, though, or she’d’ve gone after you for sure,” Leo added.

“But we’re all down here,” Mikey noted. “So why’d she run off? Does she think she’s gonna find more turtles around here or something?”

Donnie paced, thinking. “More than anything, she’s wanted to stay a turtle. She tried to sabotage the retro-mutagen… not badly enough to ruin it, but enough to delay the process by a couple of days. If she’s working on modified instinctual drives, then she probably has two objectives: reproduction, and self-preservation, in this case, staying a turtle _in order_ to reproduce in the future.”

“In which case, she may try to ambush us,” Leo added.

“Maybe…” Donatello considered, “though, if she’s acting on a fight-or-flight instinct, she may be running to somewhere safe, or to someone who can give her asylum.”

“Like Cav!” Mikey exclaimed.

“Good thinking, Mikey… if anyone is anti-reversion, it’s Cav. If April makes it to him, he’ll find somewhere to hide her or put up a good fight trying to keep us away from her,” Leo reasoned.

“And also, because he lives in an old asylum,” Mikey added proudly, making the others groan in response.

Raph shook his head. “He starts off so well sometimes, but at some point, the thought hamster falls off the wheel…”

“Let’s go,” Leo ordered. “Mikey, why don’t you stay here with Casey—“

“Why do _I_ have to stay behind?!” Mikey protested.

“Casey Jones can take care of himself!” Casey likewise complained.

“—in case April comes back.” Leo said sternly, emphasizing each word.

“Oh,” Casey said, backing down.

“In that case, fine,” Mikey agreed. “We’re good.”

With that, Leo and Raph caught up with Donnie at the turnstiles, the three of them sprinting down the tunnel.

 

“She couldn’t have decided to escape after dark, could she?” Raph growled as the three of them pelted across the rooftops. “She just had to run out when we’re most likely to get spotted…”

“Just _run!_ ” Leo commanded. “She’s got a big lead on us. Fan out!” Donnie and Raph, flanking Leo, extended their range by two buildings on either side of him.

Leonardo was first to spot the rogue turtle as she made a beeline for the condemned building. April sensed him coming, looking back over her shoulder at him as she continued to run. “April!” he shouted at her. “Stop! You don’t have to—“ He was cut off by a massive explosion of smoke bombs in his path. Leo came out of the cloud coughing and wheezing, losing ground on her while he recovered. Donnie and Raph drew closer together as Leo fell behind.

Raphael was prepared when she pulled a similar trick on him. What he wasn’t prepared for was a second explosion almost directly after the first, with a grappling rope strung low across his path. Vision obscured, he ran straight into the obscured wire and clotheslined himself. He hit the rooftop and slid to a stop on his shell, sending up a cloud of dust in his wake.

Donnie found himself far ahead of his brothers. He was gaining on her with his longer stride. _Please… please don’t make me fight you…_ he thought in earnest. If she had snagged all the smoke bombs she could carry, surely she had grabbed the shuriken by the door as well… The inevitable cloud of smoke blew up in front of him. He held his breath and squinted his eyes against it. Anticipating her attack, he ducked his head into his shell and spun his bo ahead of him like a shield, just in time to deflect a small hail of throwing stars. Three of them stuck in the wood, he noted as he emerged untouched.   Ahead of him, April looked back over her shoulder, giving a little shriek and missing a step at the sight of the beheaded-looking Donatello. She breathed a sigh of relief as he popped his head back out.

They passed the bank, the abandoned asylum looming in the distance. April cocked her head, tracking something—some _one_ Donnie couldn’t see, but in a moment, a cloud of purple smoke revealed Karai, in her human guise, falchion held out to one side in a blocking gesture. April seemed a bit leery, but then changed her mind and direction, and dashed _toward_ Karai. The latter lowered her sword as the turtle girl reached her and the two began an urgent conversation. Karai took a shocked step back at what was being said to her. She yanked April to herself with one arm, pointing her sword at Donnie as he arrived on the scene.

“Whatever she told you, I can guarantee, it’s a lie,” he told her flatly.

Karai regarded him with a cool reptilian gaze. “That’sss ffar enouffgh…”

Leo landed on the roof beside Donatello. “Karai... you can’t trust her! She’s not right in the head!”

“Evvven ssso, gang rape iszz a pretty ssstrong allegation. I can’t jussst let thhhat go unnotissced,” the kunoichi countered, shifting her posture to defend, the falchion’s blade aimed outward at them. However, she held on to April’s carapace more like a hostage than someone she was protecting.

“It’s her mutation… it’s doing something to her mind! We need to help her!” Donnie pleaded as Raph landed and jogged to a stop on the roof behind him.

Karai hissed something to April. The female turtle replied with an emphatic nod. “Well, be thhat aszz it may, I gotta ssside withhh my girl.” She moved so her hand was casually draped around April’s neck. “We women, we gotta _sssstick_ togethhher, afffter all...”

April yelped and her hand went to her neck, a look of anger and betrayal on her face. “You _bi_ —“ she started to say, falling unconscious and collapsing to the rooftop out from under Karai’s hand, which held a tiny dart.

“Oopsss,” she grinned charmingly at Leo, lowering her sword. “Thhhat poiszzon sshhould keep her out fffor at leassst nine hourszz. Plenty ofvv time fffor any gang rape you’re actually planning to perpetrate,” she joked. “Thhhough ifff I ffind out about it actually happening, I’ll cassstrate all of you.” She pointed at each of them with the tip of the falchion before sheathing it.

“You could tell she was lying?” Leo queried as Donnie rushed in to scoop up the knocked-out April.

The kunoichi laughed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, pleaszze… thhe girl can’t lie for sshhhit! I knew ffor sssure when shhhe ssaid Mikey waszz in on it. Really, sssomeone’ss gotta tell her…” She grimaced and shuddered as she reverted to her serpent form, falling to the roof as her legs disappeared from under her. Leonardo helped her up.

“Thanks,” he told her genuinely. A curious look appeared on his face. “How did you know we were coming?”

She snorted. “You kidding? Withhh thhat many sssmoke bombsss? In broad daylight? Unssstealthhiesst ninja evvver!” She turned to Donnie, who had the unconscious turtle couched in his arms. “How much longer…?

“Two days,” he answered sadly, eyes on his lover— _former_ lover, he had to remind himself. Karai ran a snake-headed hand over his shoulder in a consoling gesture. She hissed in a way that was possibly sympathetic, her snake eyes piercing him with their unblinking stare. Their situations shared, or soon would share, some odd similarities. Donnie met her gaze, giving her a nod of gratitude.

“Two blocksss ovvver iszz a back alley withhh sssewer accessss,” she informed the group. “Givvve my fatthher my…” She paused a moment, thinking. “…my fffond regardszz.”

Leo squeezed her shoulder. “We will.” She touched her snout to his beak briefly as they set off in the direction she had indicated.

 

Donatello shifted April’s dead weight in his arms. It had been a long way to carry her, but he wouldn’t let Leo or Raph take over from him, despite their offers to help. He took her as his literal burden to bear, as well as figurative.

He glanced upward as they passed the turnstiles. “This is also not quite the ‘carrying you over the threshold’ I had in mind…” he murmured to her, unconscious though she was.

Michelangelo looked over at the group from the old arcade game as they trundled silently into the lair, then did a double-take at April in Donnie’s arms. “Oh my god, April! Is she dead?!”

Casey shot to his feet from the beanbag chair. “WHAT?!” He pelted to the stairs faster than one would think humanly possible. “April!”

“She’s not dead,” Leo explained, receiving relieved breaths from the two distraught onlookers. “Karai just put her out with a poison dart. Mikey, kusarigama chain, please…”

Donnie set her down on her knees gently, holding her shell so that the others could loop the chain around her, binding her wrists and ankles tightly, then pinning the chain tightly with the point of Mikey’s blade. “I swear to Darwin… I take my eyes off her for one second and something goes wrong…”

“That _does_ seem to be the case,” Leo mulled. “From now on, I want a double watch on her… four-hour shifts, no falling asleep—“

“Leo, I can manage—“ Donnie started. Leo cut him off.

“—which is why most of the shifts will be you and someone else. You don’t have to do everything by yourself, Donnie… We’re your brothers. Let us help. _We’re_ April’s friends too.”

“…as is Casey Jones. I can take a shift before I go home,” he volunteered. Leo nodded assent.

“Guys…” Donnie started, touched, but then didn’t know what else to say. “…Thanks.”

 

Donatello puttered about in his lab, with Mikey nearby, spinning around in his chair to see how dizzy he could make himself. Donnie didn’t know if this made for an effective watch, but it was keeping Mikey out of trouble at least. Behind him, April sighed in her sleep.

He spent some time transferring mutagen in and out of the centrifuge for Frito’s cure before he finished off April’s. He looked down his checklist for the hundredth time. Just like the first batch of retro-mutagen he’d made, he’d spun, separated, filtrated, heated, enzymated, incubated, cooled, and incubated again… Now it was just a few hours before it was ready. Then, like the batch he’d made for Mr. O’Neil, he just had to… had to… add…

“No…” he realized. “No! NO! Nonononono…. Ohhh…” His head dropped into his hands. “Oh my god, I’m an idiot!!”

April started awake at his shout. Mikey stopped his spinning as Donnie frantically flipped through his notes. “What’s wrong, D?”

“I didn’t write it down… The final step, I didn’t document it! Ohhhh….” he groaned in despair.

Mikey was optimistic. “It’s okay. You can write it down now!” He picked a pencil up off the desk and twirled it around in his fingers, preparing to hand it to Donnie.

Don glared at him, and his voice sounded hollow as he responded. “That’s not the problem, Mikey! Last time I made the retro-mutagen, I had to add some of April’s blood, because of her immunity. But now… I can’t add her own blood to the retro-mutagen… it won’t work!” He slammed his fists on the desk.

April made a small, sad noise through her gag. Donnie dropped to his knees, gathering her up in his arms, tears spilling from his eyes. “I can’t fix you…” he breathed, shaking. “I can’t fix you!”

She gazed at him steadily, her own eyes slowly tearing up, more in reaction to his than for her own plight. She murmured something through Donnie’s mask and nuzzled his face with her beak consolingly.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry!” he cried, hugging her closer and burying his head in her neck.

Mikey laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder, also starting to get choked up. “It’ll be okay, Donnie… you’ll think of something. You always think of something…” Raph and Leo appeared at the door, followed by Splinter. Mikey sadly shook his head at them.

Donnie paid them no heed as they entered, surrounding him and trying to offer comfort. He was lost in his despair and April’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Sweetheart….” She set her head atop his, her sympathetic tears trickling down to merge with his.

 

Donnie didn’t sleep. His eyes burned from all the tears he’d shed through the night. He longed for April’s comfort, ached to untie her so she could wrap her arms around him, wished to dive into their synergy so her love could wash over him and her thoughts could reassure him, tell him it was all right… But he couldn’t. He didn’t dare, even though she seemed to have calmed completely. Who knew what else she might try, or how strong that raging lust had grown, waiting to strike at the first opportunity? All it needed was one weak fool… and Donnie refused to be that fool; he’d been that fool too many times already.

She had nuzzled him again and again as he wept over her for hours, the only motion she could manage, sometimes sympathetic and sometimes while giving him bedroom eyes, but she had eventually fallen asleep. He stroked her hair out of her eyes. She stretched against her bonds, making the chains clink. Tears sprung to his eyes again. “All I ever wanted was for you to be free…” he whispered. “Now look at you… I said I didn’t want you trapped down here; now we have to keep you chained down here, of all things…”

He turned over and tried to make his mind shut up enough to sleep. Sleep, to block out the world for a few precious hours, would have been welcome, but he tossed and turned, mind both too mournful and too busy to pass out. His mistake plagued him; not only had he failed April, now he was at a loss as to what to do. How was he going to explain to Mr. O’Neil that his daughter wasn’t coming home… not today, maybe not ever? And that they were keeping her restrained with chains and a gag? That wouldn’t go over well…

And surely April’s teachers would start to notice the lack of her homework coming in… would Kirby have to go to the police, declare her missing? That could raise some awkward questions for him, about the forged medical notes, why only two people had seen her over the course of two months (and that might implicate Casey as an accomplice)… even the whereabouts of her mother. The whole ordeal had been hard enough on April’s dad; he didn’t need the added burden of suspected murder investigations, or whatever else might creep up. Of course, they had no proof against him, other than that a colleague had forged a note excusing his child for being very ill, but Kirby wasn’t all that steady of a person to begin with… the stress would probably devastate him.

Raph and Leo spent their 2 o’clock to 6 a.m. shift sitting at the back corner of the dojo space, as far away from Don and April as they could, so as not to disturb them. Donatello listened in on their conversation as he lay there, desperate for something to take him away from his own thoughts.

“…don’t know what we’re going to do about her… we can’t keep her tied up forever; it’s too cruel.”

“I s’pose we could use her as a paperweight…”

“That’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.”

That was the last straw; he couldn’t lay here any more. He stood up, picking up his bo from the weapon rack and heading out of the dojo.

Leo caught sight of him and sat up. “Donnie? Where ya goin’?”

Donatello paused, thinking. “I don’t know. Out.” He turned and left without giving an explanation.

Behind him, he heard Leo hiss at Raph, “I think he heard you, idiot!”

 

Donnie really didn’t have any idea where he was headed when he left the lair; he just couldn’t be there any more at the moment. He exited the sewer and climbed the fire escape of the nearest building. Then he took a seat on its edge and sat, staring at the sky until the sun rose. He didn’t know why this was what he decided to do, but it was nice to be reminded that there was still light at the end of the darkness.

As the sun warmed him, his mind went back to that wonderful emptiness, the love and warmth and completeness of the soul plane, and for the moment, he felt nearly whole again.

When he returned to the lair, his brothers were gathered in the kitchen for breakfast, though things were oddly quiet. As Donnie got a glimpse of the kitchen, he understood why: all of them had their noise-canceling headphones on while April was having oatmeal spooned into her mouth by Leonardo. _Clever_ , Donnie thought. Any propositions she was making between mouthfuls were falling on deafened ears. April, however, looked fairly annoyed… possibly due to the fact that every time she tried to say something, Mikey would taunt her with, “La-la-la, I can’t hear you!”

Out of habit, he headed into his lab, but only a few steps in, his newfound serenity sloughed away, dejection and the weight of failure falling back onto his shoulders like a cloak he couldn’t manage to take off. He backed out of the room and headed for the dojo instead, but the cloak of bitter emotions still went with him.

Deciding to start working on his unarmed moves, he set his bo on the weapon rack, warmed up his muscles, and started working on some block-kick combos. His body went through the drills on auto-pilot, leaving his distracted mind to continue running, despite Donnie’s intent to lose himself in concentrating on his form.

_So stupid… how could I possibly have forgotten to document the last step of my success?_ That had thrown everything off from the beginning… if he had been able to read a note that he had used April’s blood in the retro-mutagen, he might have done more research before barreling into the lengthy process of making something that was, ultimately, useless. And now that he had to go back to square one and research the ionized mutagen, he might not end up having enough left for the retro-mutagen itself… _I am such a goddamn idiot…_ How much time had he wasted, trying to make April’s cure?   How much time had he wasted, in denial that anything was wrong with her? Leo had tried to warn him, and he’d ignored it… Why did he insist on being so stubborn?! Now April wasn’t even free to move around, lest she try to run again, or try to seduce or rape one of them…

That thought just brought back the memory of her with Raph, and his anger at both of them flooded back. Why did she have to—

Donnie found himself facing the wall. Out of sheer frustration, he punched it, making the weapon rack rattle. As he rubbed his hand, his bo fell off the rack, hitting the floor with a clatter.   It landed in just the right spot to spring the catch for the naginata blade, which slid out with a _shing!_ He sighed, bending to pick it up, and stopped, staring at the blade, still with the purple stain Donnie had never gotten around to cleaning off… Kraang blood.

He stared at it, mouth opening to an o as cogs in his brain snapped together and started turning. He snatched it off the floor and dashed for his lab, nearly stabbing Raph with the point as he rounded the dojo door. “Hey! Watch it, Don—Donnie?” Raph’s gaze swiveled around, following his brother’s path as he pelted across the lair to his lab. He grinned, nodding with his chin to Donnie as Mikey showed up. “Donnie’s got an idea.” Mikey squee’ed in anticipation.

 

Hope renewed, Donatello dampened a cotton swab and wetted the dried blood on his naginata, swiping the sample across a glass slide. He added a tiny drop of the retro-mutagen to it. Now for the final component…

He approached April, who had been set up on the bean bag to watch TV, with a syringe in his hand. She looked up at him curiously. “Just need a drop of your blood,” he explained, poking her in the shoulder with the needle.

April flinched slightly as she was pricked. “Mrrph! Mmmph?!” she complained through her gag.

“Sorry,” he said shortly. “Hopefully it won’t be for nothing.”

He returned to the lab and added April’s blood to the slide, covered it, and slid it under his microscope. He peered into the eyepiece and paused, watching. There wasn’t much change in the mutant cells, given how old the Kraang blood was, but a few of them reacted, turning normal. “Yes!” Donnie shouted. “This is promising! Very promising!”

Now he needed his brothers’ help.

 

Donnie’s face appeared around the door of the dojo, bearing a wide grin. “Can I see you guys for a minute? New mission time.” He gave Raph an especially wry grin.

The silent grin rankled Raph. “What?!” he demanded.

Don grinned further. “You’re gonna love this one.”

Raph raised a skeptical eyebrow at him.

 

“I think I’ve found a way to make April’s retro-mutagen work,” Donatello explained, “but for it, I’m going to need roughly a pint of Kraang blood.”

Raph smiled, sitting back and crossing his arms. “Hey, you’re right; I DO like this plan already!”

“How is that supposed to work, though? I thought April already had Kraang blood, and the mutagen bypassed it,” Leo pointed out.

“As far as I can tell, it has to do with the shift in the alignment in the basic structure of the mutagen; the latticed matrix structure of the ionized mutagen didn’t allow the Kraang components of April’s blood to latch on. However, pure Kraang blood is much denser than April’s. So by infusing it into the somewhat de-ionized retro-mutagen, it should give the mutagen particles a thicker matrix to bond to; thus producing an active—”

“Right… I shouldn’t have asked,” Leo said, trying to filter plain English out of the technical terms. “As long as it works, it’s good enough for us.”

“So, you’re saying we have to catch the brain part of the Kraang, and, what, squeeze the Kraang juice out of it?” Mikey asked.

“I’ll get the orange juicer,” Raph volunteered with a laugh. Leo made a disgusted face at him.

“Mhh, I’d prefer to leave them alive. All I need from them is a little blood,” Donnie said.

“I don’t see why,” Raph snarked. “Every time we turn one of those Kraang robots to scrap, the brain just runs off and gets a new body to attack us with. Trust me, they’ve got hundreds of ‘em, just sitting in a closet at TCRI.”

“Because we’re supposed to show mercy,” Leo countered.

“Yeah, lot of good _that’s_ done us… When have the Kraang ever showed _us_ any mercy?”

“Raphael,” a commanding voice rang from above them.

“Sensei,” Raph acknowledged, bowing his head.

The ninja master stepped down the benches to speak to all of them. “It takes more strength to be merciful than it does to be cruel. Keep in mind that your enemies may never have experienced mercy. That which you show them may be the first they know. ”

“Yeah, but, Sensei…” Raphael complained, “I don’t if you’ve noticed, but we’re in a war here… the Kraang are trying to take over our whole planet! D’you really think it’s time to show the Kraang mercy?”

“A single stone may change the course of a river. A single act of mercy may have far-reaching consequences.” Having had his say, the rat mutant bowed to them and walked off to the kitchen.

Raph looked a bit miffed at the wisdom, muttering under his breath as Splinter left. “I don’t see why _we_ need to be showing mercy when _they’re_ the ones gaining the upper hand…”

Leonardo ignored him and continued. “We’re probably best off _not_ going back to TCRI just yet. That hornet’s nest is probably still stirred up.”

“I hate hornets!” Mikey added. “Hornets and Kraang: Nature’s bastards…”

“I’m not sure ‘nature’ even applies to the Kraang…” Donnie whispered to him.

Mikey mulled this over. “Okay… Hornets and Kraang: Bastards.”

Donnie considered for a moment. “I like it.” Mikey beamed proudly.

“Focus…” Leo growled at them. “We’re probably best off striking them here,” he pointed to a dot on Donnie’s laptop, which displayed their map of known Kraang facilities. “It’s always been active every time we’ve been there, but not so heavily-populated we can’t get away easily.”

 

After a little stealthy scavenging and borrowing in the afternoon, they were prepared. They arrived at the Kraang outpost lugging a fishing net, another “net” (fashioned out of a tennis racquet), a discarded cat carrier, and a lobster trap.

“Why do I always have to be the bait?” Michelangelo complained.

“Because you’re good at it,” Raph told him, “and next to Donnie, you can run the fastest.”

“Then why can’t Donnie do it?”

“Because, brainiac, I have to do the blood-drawing,” Donnie snapped at him. “Now go get over by the door.”

Mikey sulked a bit as he snuck to the front of the building. “Hmph… wonder where they’d get their bait if I wasn’t around.” He was just in time to see a handful of Kraang suits unloading the back of one of their unmarked white vans. He leapt down in front of them. “Yo, Kraang! Your mother was an Easy-Bake Oven!” he hollered, running around the corner.

Three of the Kraang followed him, the one in front proclaiming, “The one known as a turtle is mistaken; Kraang’s mother was not—“, at which point Raphael jabbed a sai through its head. He kicked the second suited robot into the wall of the building and cleaved the third apart with both sai. Leonardo pounced and scooped up the tentacled brain with the net as it popped out of the robotic body of the first of Raph’s victim, and in the same motion, slammed it into the open lobster trap. Mikey caught the tennis-racquet net as Donnie tossed it to him and slammed it down around the second brain to free itself from its confines. The third brain ended up trapped, unseen, beneath its own robot body as it fell forward onto its stomach.

Donnie reached into the lobster trap, pinning the Kraang brain down with one hand and assessing where to stick a needle into it. The brain creature squalled and whimpered as it was pierced and Don drew its blood into the syringe, capping it and storing it in his belt. The others looked on as Donnie pulled out a small sucker from the other side of his belt and unwrapped it. “The hell is that for?” Raph asked.

“Preventing hypoglycemia, in case they get low blood sugar,” he said, popping the lollipop in the Kraang’s protesting mouth. Its eyes went wide. It stopped struggling and wrapped a pair of tentacles around the stick.

Raph let out a long-suffering sigh. “Okay, showing mercy is one thing, Donnie, but this is going way too far…”

“Huh,” Leo noticed. “It likes it…” He tried reaching into the cage to pull the sucker away from the brain and got his hand whipped with a tentacle for his trouble. “Ow!” He withdrew his hand, shaking it.

Donnie finished drawing blood from the brain in the cat carrier, also sticking a sucker in its mouth. “Okay, Mikey… ready to go get us two more?”

Mikey struck an exaggerated pose and with a low, gravelly voice declared, “I’m Baitmaaaan!” He disappeared back around the corner. His voice carried back to the others. “Yoo-hoo, Kraang! Come and get—ulp!” An alarm sounded from within the facility. The young turtle came hauling back around the side of the building. “Aaaaa! Laser-bazooka!” he yelled at Raph, clinging to the wall above him, ready to strike the Kraang Mikey was supposed to be leading.

“Laser- _bazooka?!_ ” Raph repeated. A beam of pink energy the size of his head shot past him as Mikey skidded around the corner. The wall of the warehouse behind them exploded. “Holy fuck… Laser-bazooka!” he screamed, dropping down and following Mikey toward a more sheltered position behind the building. “We gotta go!” he announced.

Donnie protested. “I don’t have enough blood yet!” He spied one of the downed Kraang suit-bots, rocking back and forth, but otherwise motionless.

“We’ll get it somewhere else! We’ve gotta get out of here!” Leo shouted over more weapon-fire. He peeked around the far corner of the building, hoping to use it as their escape route, but his glance was met with a nearly solid wall of blasts from Kraang energy weapons. Even Leo didn’t dare to try finding a path through that. “They’ve got us pinned down!”

Ignoring Leo, Donatello sprung the catch on his bo, loosing the blade. He stabbed it into the downed android’s shoulder, dragging it to him along the ground. He flipped it over, mashing a hand down on the brain creature immediately. Uncapping a new syringe with his teeth, he pinched a vein on its right hemisphere and stuck the needle in, drawing a few cc’s of blood from it, as much as he dared. Then he jammed a sucker in its mouth and tossed it in the cat carrier with the other brain. The carrier’s first occupant rushed the newcomer, trying to take its treat. The newcomer was having none of it, though, and the two Kraang started slap-fighting over the candy with their tentacles.

Donnie checked the levels of the three syringes of lavender-colored blood he had collected. It _might_ be enough… but it also might not. He needed one more “volunteer” for his little blood drive to be sure…

Part of the wall exploded as the bazooka-beam annihilated the corner of the Kraang’s own building. Donnie eeped and scooted further from the corner, backing into Mikey, Raph, and Leo as they backed away from the laser show that was getting closer to rounding the opposite edge of the building.

“Okay… who wants to die shot full of lots of little holes, and who wants to die from one big one? ‘Cause that’s looking like our only two options at this point…” Raph said, sounding panicky.

Mikey let out a whimper. “I love you guys!”

From the bazooka side, a Kraang android hit the wall, followed by another. On the other side, a dozen bots were suddenly crunched into a heap, in various states of functionality. One droid, with a still-functioning weapon, attempted to fire on its attacker, but a handlike wing tore the gun away. Several brains popped out of the pile and went scurrying as Rock rammed the pile again with a hefty shoulder for good measure. Mikey grabbed his tennis-racquet net, and beat it at the ground, trying to catch one of the speedy creatures as they ran by him. A gum-booted foot appeared before him.

“The Cavalry has arrived! You know, I really expected more from a bunch of ninjas. I guess hand-to-hand combat doesn’t work so well against lasers, does it?” Cav pounced on one of the brains as it zigzagged its way near. He opened his claws and let it scurry a few feet away before capturing it in his claws again. “Hmm, these are fun…” he mused.

“Cav!” Leo said, surprised. “Where did you guys come from?”

“Saw your little light show from several blocks away. Thought we’d check it out,” the cat replied, letting the brain go and catching it again, tail swishing around behind him. “Good thing we did…”

“I’ll say,” Leo admitted. “The bazooka was a new one on us…”

Donnie bent down toward Cav’s catch. “if I may…”

“By all means,” Cav said, squashing the Kraang brain down with one finger as Donnie poked it and drew its blood. “How’s your girl? I’m surprised she isn’t with you.”

“She’s had… an episode,” he replied, picking his words carefully. “Master Splinter is watching over her. This, hopefully, will be the last component of her cure.” He held the light purple blood aloft so that Cav could see it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Catch as catch can" is a wrestling term, meaning the same as "no hold barred," or in other words, allowance to grab and bring down your opponent any way you can; no holds would be considered unfair in these matches.
> 
> Spot the Red vs Blue joke for bonus points. ;)


	16. Her Return

Chapter 16 - Her Return

 

Donnie blended the Kraang blood into the retro-mutagen with utmost delicacy. There was no room for mistakes; no mismeasurements, no bubbles in the solution, no knocking anything to the floor. Every move he made was careful and deliberate. After coming this far, there was no way he would let her down now.

He droppered a sample of the infusion onto a slide, added a droplet of April’s blood, covered the slide, and peered at it under the microscope. Four faces at the doorway held their breath in anticipation. He turned to them, smiled, and nodded. The turtles by the door and their master let out whoops of triumph. Donatello exhaled in relief. Fear that he would have to start from scratch allayed, he drew a syringe full of the magenta mixture.

There it was at last: the key to April’s bonds, the key to her future. She would be human again, she would go home, see her father, date Casey, go to school, live in the world she was supposed to live in. And he… he would fall away into the background, where he was supposed to be. Maybe someday, he’d be able to forget about how much he loved her, though right now it was breaking his heart to let her— _make_ her go.

He knew what he had to do. He braced himself, and sighed, then rose and strode out of his lab.

A cheer went up as he exited the lab. Donnie gave his brothers a wan smile, really wishing they wouldn’t… it felt farcical compared to what he was feeling. Splinter, however, seemed to know the feeling of the occasion better, and wore a more somber expression. He gave Donatello an understanding nod.

“Where is she?”

“In my quarters. Take as much time as you need.”

Mikey moaned like the evening entertainment had been cancelled. “We don’t get to watch her change back??”

“This is a private moment for the two of them. I believe you all have chores to attend to, do you not?” The guys groaned with disappointment, but moved off as ordered. Splinter, too, found something in the kitchen to busy himself with.

 

Donnie slid the rice-paper door to Splinter’s study shut. The scent of freshly-burned incense hung in the air. April was seated on her knees; Splinter had likely been leading her in meditation, despite her chained state.

He wanted to feel her love, to know her mind again, just one more time. He knew it was risky, but if this was the last chance they got to synergize… He gazed into her eyes and opened up to her.

He was instantly seized by a powerful lust he’d known no equal to. The power of her need overcame him, becoming his need as well. _Oh god… help!_ he cried out as he was caught in the undertow of her fierce desire. His cock slid out from under his shell, swelling and pulsing insistently. He threw the chained turtle down on her plastron on the ornate rug, positioning himself behind her.

 _We want this… have to have this,_ they thought as one, but then Donnie struggled, forcing himself away from the unity.

_Wait, what?! No!_

It was as though the toxic lust itself was in control of them both. Far under the tidal wave of emotion, he heard and felt April: _Please stop! Help me!_

His body moved without his consent; she had control of it, in the same way they had spoken through one another. He fought to regain control as she lined his massive member up with her cloaca. _No, stop! Stop! I don’t want this!_

 _Yes, you do,_ part of himself, merged with her, insisted. _We both do._ He felt the head of his dick start to penetrate her.

 _No!_ He thrashed against the wall of desirous feelings, trying to reclaim control of his body. _I won’t let you use us like this—either of us!_ He ripped his mind away from hers, grabbing his head at the temples as the pain blinded him. He threw himself backward away from her, scooting several feet backward in a crab-walk. He panted, noticing that he’d broken out in a cold sweat. April was groaning through her gag as the headache assaulted her as well.

Enough was enough. He jumped to his feet, grabbed up the syringe and plunged it into her shoulder, injecting the retro-mutagen as soon as he was sure the needle was in.

She started screaming with agony as every cell in her body was altered back to its original state. Her bulbous turtle beak shrank back into her human face, her fingers and toes split, her shell shrank and was absorbed into her body. The chains holding her, clinking, slipped off as her body became thinner. She brushed them aside, pulling Donnie’s mask from her mouth as she panted, the transformation complete. She stood, wobbling a little as she reaccustomed herself to her body, wincing from the headache.

“Oh! Um… er…” Donnie realized he’d forgotten something crucial, and turned his back to her to preserve her modesty.

Casey had been right in his assessment, which April vocalized with an embarrassed yelp: “I’m completely naked!” She did her best to cover herself with her arms, but a moment later, a red kimono dropped over her shoulders. Donnie hadn’t heard his master enter, but his mind had been on other things for the last few minutes, namely the searing fire that had been engulfing it. Thankfully, it was ebbing. He stepped out of Splinter’s study as April dressed.

She wrapped herself up in the silk garment gladly, though it was quite long on her. “Thank you, Sensei,” she said in relief, tying the obi behind her.

The rat master looked down at her kindly, standing in his white hanjuban, and assisted her with the knot. “Bring it back to me when you can. I am rather fond of it.” He gave her a small bow, dismissing her. April rushed to Donatello immediately, impeding his progress as he tried to walk off without speaking to her.

“Donnie… I’m so sorry, I never wanted to hurt you… I didn’t have control over it, I couldn’t help it… I couldn’t stop!” she blurted out all at once. “I’m sorry, Donnie! I love you!”

He refused to look at her. His body felt like stone, cold and immobile.

“Say something!” she pleaded.

He turned his head further away from her, as much to keep from seeing her face as to hide his own. Then he said three words he thought he would never say to her:

“April… please go.”

She choked off a sob, two teardrops staining the concrete, then ran.   The sound of her crying echoed back to him as she cleared the steps and disappeared into the tunnels. Two more tears spattered to the ground beside April’s, followed by another pair.

 

“Hey, Leo. Is Donnie around?”

Leo looked up from his spot on the floor before the TV. “Sorry, April… Haven’t seen him.”

She saddened, then put on a falsely bright expression. “Well… I was only bringing Sensei’s kimono back to him anyway. Maybe I’ll catch him later.”

“I’ll tell him you were looking for him,” Leo smiled back at her, but shook his head as she left.

 

Donnie pried apart the rivets on the Van de Graaff dome. He could use the metal for another project… or that was the excuse, anyway. Anything to make sure that whenever April was due to come by, he was elsewhere… preferably somewhere he couldn’t be found. Maybe if he was continually unavailable, she’d stop coming to try to see him. He resumed his normal amount of training and duties around the lair, but arranged it so that he was free in the afternoons to leave the lair before April came to train. Any patrol she cared to join he begged off from, and Leo, well aware of his brother’s feelings, thoughtfully let him stay behind. He made it a point to always have somewhere to be on Thursday nights, like tonight, when she came to cook, still dutifully keeping her promise to the guys.

His stomach notified him of how late it was getting—well past the time she would have gone home—so he packed it in and headed back to the lair to raid the fridge. As with the previous two weeks, there was a plate of food with “For Donnie” written on the foil. He felt that he should not be accepting of these tokens, as it would just encourage her, but he also didn’t want to let her cooking—which she didn’t even like doing that much—go to waste. He carefully scraped the beef stroganoff onto another plate, then replaced the foil and stuck it back in the fridge to make it look like he hadn’t touched it, next to a likewise empty plate that had been spaghetti and meatballs, also labeled for him.

Raph came into the kitchen and grabbed a soda from the fridge. He watched Donnie shoveling cold stroganoff down his gullet. “You know, she’s gonna catch up with you eventually. And Leo’s only gonna put up with covering for you so long…”

Don gave him a noncommittal “Mmmh,” and continued eating.

“Dude… Donnie, you’re gonna have to talk to her. You should quit being a coward about it and just face her down. Tell her to get lost.”

Donatello looked askance at him. He didn’t know if it was worth explaining to Raph why April kept coming around and why, exactly, he didn’t want to see her. Finishing his meal, he threw the dish in the sink and headed for the living area, joining Mikey, who was spread out along one bench playing a game on his T-phone. “Hey.”

He thought that Mikey ignored him, too enthralled in his game, but a moment later, out of nowhere, he said, “I miss Apritello.”

Donnie snorted. “Sorry to sink your ‘ship, man. I thought you were tired of us going off together anyway.”

“Kinda. At least then, you guys had a good vibe. Things aren’t the same with you avoiding her and all… Agh! Die! Die! Die!” he suddenly screamed at his game, mashing buttons. “I told you she wasn’t gonna give you up.”

“Well, she’s going to have to, ‘cause I don’t want to see her any more.”

“I think he’s scared of her,” Raphel teased from the entryway of the kitchen.

Mikey laughed this off. “Pfff, Donnie, afraid of April… good one, Raph…”’

“Heh,” Donnie conceded, becoming immediately introspective while his brothers laughed. Mikey caught his look and stopped laughing.

“Wait… Don, you’re not _actually_ scared of her…?” he queried, abandoning his game. Raphael looked like Christmas had come early, doubling over with laugher.

Donnie set his jaw. No more denial. Denial had brought him nothing but trouble. “Actually… yes. What I saw in her the night she went home, it absolutely terrified me.”

“Why?” Raph asked, wheezing and clutching his sides. “Did she… did she ask you to marry her?”

Donnie shook his head. “What she almost did to us... to me…” He looked to Raph. “You would’ve shit your shell.”

Raph sobered at last. “You’re serious…”

Don squinted his eyes shut. “She took me over, my body, almost all of my mind, too. And when I tried to get her to stop, she just kept going, using my body to rape her…”

“Wait, wait… she was using your body to rape _herself?_ ” Raph stopped him, confused. “You’re making this shit up...”

“I know it sounds weird…” Donnie acceded. “In psychology terms, it makes more sense: this whole time, I think her superego, her restraint, was put out of commission by the mutation… Most of the time, her ego was still in control, but heavily influenced by her id, the part that demands she satisfy all her desires. But toward the end, her id-mind had nearly taken full control of her, overwhelming her ego… and then trying to use _me_ to rape her ego and superego.”

Raph’s voice sounded hollow as he said, “So she was using you as…” he trailed off.

“Effectively, she was using me as a sex toy.”

Raph and Mikey both looked aghast. “Holy sewer shit on a stick, Don…” Raph exclaimed. Donnie nodded; that summed things up pretty well.

“But… she’s fixed now, right?” Mikey checked. “She’s not the thing that attacked you now, right?”

“She should be back to normal,” Donnie assured him. “She sounded like it when she left…”

“So there’s no reason to still be scared of her, right?”

Don eyed him. “I see what you’re trying to do, Mikey, and even if I could get over what her alter-ego did to me that fast, I’m still not letting her lead a dead-end life down here.”

“Heh, dead-end! There are no dead-ends, only new beginnings! Just take things as they come, and don’t worry so much about the future. Booyakasha, bro. Glory to the moment.”

“Is that what ‘booyakasha’ means?” Raph asked.

“I dunno. But if not, it’s sure what it _should_ mean.”

Donnie cracked a smile at his little brother. “Ya know, Mikey, you’re smarter than people give you credit for. Sometimes, anyway.”

“I know, right? I keep trying to tell you guys that, but you never listen to me!”

 

“How’s she coping?”

“I dunno, man… She’s just not the same since she came back,” Casey informed Donnie as they sat on the steps before patrol. “Like… she’s trying to keep this pasted-on fake smile up for everyone, but she’s so obviously… lost. She won’t look me in the eye. And the other night, we were just hanging out, talking, and she busts out in tears. What to you say to that, man? I don’t know what to do when a girl _cries_!”

“I think you’re just supposed to be there to cry _on_ at those moments,” Donnie guessed.

Casey shook his head, resting his elbows on his knees. “Girls are complicated.”

“You have no idea…”

 

“Good job, Jamal!” Donnie praised, accepting the flask of mutagen from the raccoon mutant. “Can you tell me where you found it on this map?”

Frito scanned the map on Donnie’s phone. “It was near the lake… so… about here.” He tapped the phone, adding a dot to the map.

Donnie saved and examined the place Frito had marked. “Huh, look at that.” He let the kid look at the phone with him. “That means there’s this whole area here that we didn’t know to search in. And now, thanks to you, we do! Good job!” he smiled.

Frito nodded, seeming proud of himself. “Where’s April?” he asked.

“She had to go home,” Donatello explained to the little raccoon. “I finished her retro-mutagen, so I’m starting work on yours now.”

Frito’s forehead scrunched together. “Didn’t she want to stay with you?”

There was that kid’s uncanny ability to shoot for the heart again… “Yeah, she did…”

“Didn’t _you_ want her to stay?”

Donnie sighed. After thinking about the question for a moment, he answered, not untruthfully, “Yeah. I did.”

“So… why didn’t she?” the raccoon kid asked.

“She didn’t belong there. It’s complicated.” Donnie ruffled the fur on his head as he stood to leave. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

Frito gave him a flat glare as he left. “I hate it when grown-ups say that…”

 

As he was on the way home from visiting Frito, Donnie’s phone started chirping its lovey-dovey tone that signaled a text from April. He rolled his eyes; he’d have to change that to something unromantic, and soon. He’d been ignoring most of her texts… well, he’d read them, just hadn’t replied. This one, though…

_Urgent: NEED to talk to u. Pls see me._

He considered just deleting it, but didn’t. Raph was right… he couldn’t keep running forever. He needed to get over his fear of her. And if April was saying something was urgent… He almost passed it off as another attempt to manipulate him. But if he was right that she was back to normal now, what were the chances she’d still be trying to fool him somehow? And if by chance she wasn’t… well, he’d need to do something about it.

 _Fine,_ he typed. _On way home from Cav’s. Meet @ lair 9pm?_

 _9’s good,_ came the response, almost instantly. _CU then._

 

He had all but changed his mind by the time he reached the lair, but April was waiting for him outside the platform. “You’re early,” he noted, trying to sound surprised rather than disappointed that he didn’t have a chance to skulk off before she arrived.

“I figured I’d be extra-punctual to make sure I didn’t ‘just miss’ you again,” she retorted. “You’re a busy turtle these days…”

He sat down by her side. “Well, somebody’s gotta do… pretty much everything, really.” Donnie cast about to find something else for small talk. He didn’t want to be too cordial with her. “So how’s… your father doing? He must be happy to have you home.”

April snorted. “Over the moon. You’d think he hadn’t seen me for two months.”

“Well, I guess that’s technically true… He didn’t really see _you_ you, he saw turtle-you.”

“Yeah, but I was still the same person. …Some of the time.” She blushed and fell silent, looking away. “Thanks for saving me from… ‘myself.’” She buried her face in her hands. “Oh, Donnie, I’m so, so sorry! I couldn’t stop it! I tried, but it was too strong! And what it tried to do to you…” She let out a wail, collapsing into tears.

He hugged her to him without a second thought. Raph was right to laugh at him… This frail little thing was what he’d been scared of facing? “Shhh…” he murmured, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. “To _us_ ,” he reminded her. “It went after us both.”

She sniffled. “I must be the most horrible person ever, to have something so hideous inside me…”

“No,” he said warmly, bumping her forehead with his. “I know you’re not… You were just… unwell. You couldn’t control yourself.”

She shook her head. “It was like, the part of me that controlled my inhibitions was being blocked off. Even if I didn’t want to do something, I couldn’t stop myself from doing it…”’

“…And that little part of you that was blocked off was crying for help. God, I was so _stupid_ … I should’ve paid more attention... I might have been able to do something if I’d only caught it early on… but no, I was having too much fun with you… and you were so irresistible! So I didn’t stop, and you couldn’t stop even if you’d wanted…” A horrified look came across his face as a gut-wrenching thought crossed his mind. “Jesus, April… Did I… Was I _raping_ you every time we—?!”

April’s jaw dropped. “No!” she breathed, her voice nearly deserting her. “No! My poor, sweet Donnie!” She pulled him to her, cuddling his face, then pushed him back to look him in the eye. “Don’t you _ever_ think that!” she told him, nearly in tears herself. “I wanted you! Every time… I wanted you to! Just… some of them would have been against my better judgment and humility, is all… ” She rolled her eyes. “And the constant drive to have sex _all the time_ … I know teenagers are notoriously horny all the time, but, uff! It was exhausting! At the end, I couldn’t stop myself at all anymore… I didn’t have the strength.”

Donnie really didn’t want to bring it up, but thought that he had to. “So, Raph…”

She winced, obviously also hoping the topic wouldn’t come up. “Raph was… convenient. I needed someone right there and then, and since you were being difficult…” she trailed off, then went off on another tack. “I tried to synergize with him. His mind was so closed off, it was like hitting a brick wall. With spikes on it.”

He laughed. “Typical Raph…”

“I guess,” she smiled, but it faded away quickly. She turned mournful eyes back to Donnie. “I didn’t do it to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you…” She stroked his face. “I really did want to stay with you as a turtle.”

Sighing, he turned his head away from her. “I wish I hadn’t had to break my promise to you. If things were normal, I’d’ve fought to let you stay… but things are never normal, are they?”

“Not around you guys, they’re not.”

Donnie grimaced. “…which is why I want you to go back to your life up top. I don’t want to be the millstone around your neck. I want you to be—“

“—free, you’ve said. You’ve got a very limited definition of freedom, you know.”

He blinked. “What? How?”

“Well, you want me to be free to make my own choices, live my own life, right?

“Right,” he agreed, suddenly feeling like he was being backed into a corner.

“I’ve made my choice, and you keep pushing me away like it’s wrong. Freedom doesn’t just mean freedom to go. It also means freedom to stay.”

Donnie’s heart soared at what she was implying. “But…”

“No buts! I’m not leaving my soul-mate. Period.”

Donnie sighed and rubbed his forehead. “This is going to make things really complicated… Our lives couldn’t possibly get crazier, could they?”

April didn’t answer, looking down and fidgeting. Maybe now wasn’t the time…

“You missed your cue,” he said, nudging her with an elbow. “This is the part where you say you’re pregnant.”

She looked back at him, words catching in her throat, but her eyes said enough. Surprise smacked Donnie upside the head; he’d only been teasing her. “You’re pregnant?”

She gave a slight nod. “I’ve decided to keep it.”

The sun itself couldn’t have outshone Donnie’s face at that moment. “You’re pregnant!” he repeated enthusiastically.

She giggled at him with a smirk. “We’ve already established that…”

He hauled her to her feet and grabbled her around the waist, spinning her around wildly on the platform. “I’m gonna be a father!!” he hollered. She shrieked with laughter as he gave her a toss in the air and caught her again, planting beaky turtle kisses across her face. “When? How far along are you?” he asked.

She shook her head. “ I was a week before my cycle when I got turned, and then things worked different… reptilian biology and all… Could be a few weeks, could be near three months… I haven’t gone to the doctor’s yet…” Her face grew somber for a moment. “There’s a chance… that… it’s Raph’s…”

Donnie gave a dismissing shake of his head. “Doesn’t matter. I’m claiming it as mine.”

She beamed at this, staring into his eyes. He gazed back into hers, unable to wipe the smile from his face. Love and relief and excitement filled him from her as their synergy snapped into place, familiar as ever, emotions singing back and forth between them. _Huh, it still works,_ he noticed.

 _Sure it does,_ April thought, as though this was obvious. _Our souls still know each other._

“Oh, April, I love you! I love you so much!” he said aloud.

“I love you too, my sweet Donnie!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you notice: This is the first time Donnie says I love you. April says it three times, and one of those times is a manipulation tactic.
> 
> Am I planning a sequel? Well, of course, if you hadn't picked that up from the author's notes earlier. I am currently working on the second book of the OHAS series: Turtle Doves. I'm hoping to be done with it by June, but don't hold me to that. At present, I'm looking to have four books in the series, excluding incidental one-shots like Queen Takes Rook. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm attempting to take some trite old ideas and rework them into something more mature and worth reading.
> 
> I only post my works when they are completely finished and polished, so I apologize for them being few and far between. I hold myself to a high standard of quality.
> 
> I love getting criticism and reviews, so please don't hesitate to leave me some!


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